A GROUP of five Tory ministers are being investigated by Westminster's sleaze watchdog for failing to declare free tickets to the Brit Awards.
Tickets to the music industry awards ceremony were given to the likes of International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey.
Culture minister Caroline Dinenage, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly and science minister Amanda Solloway are also being investigated for failing to declare that they received tickets worth as much as £900.
The ministers are being probed by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone in what is the largest group of government ministers to be investigated by the watchdog.
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Tory MP Nickie Aiken and Labour frontbench MPs Chi Onwurah, Alex Sobel and Conor McGinn are also allegedly being investigated for failing to declare the tickets.
The MPs are all alleged to have breached the Parliament’s Code of Conduct by failing to declare the tickets Register of Members’ Financial Interests within 28 days of receiving them, which is required for gifts.
The Brit Awards ceremony took place on May 11 when the UK was under tight coronavirus restrictions. Pubs and restaurants were only able to serve people outside and indoor concerts were banned.
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The Brits ceremony, held at London's O2 Arena, was allowed to go ahead with 4000 attendees under a pilot for the UK Government's Events Research Programme.
Those who attended did not need to wear face masks or sit two metres apart.
Many politicians who attended were given free tickets by industry body UK Music or organisers BPI.
Some of the MPs who attended the live event were quick to declare the free tickets to parliamentary authorities but others including Cleverly, Aiken and McGinn registered their tickets more than a month after the event, meaning a breach of the official rules.
Labour MPs Aiken and Onwurah told the Daily Mail that they had apologised for not declaring the tickets.
Another MP told the paper that they "held their hands up" when they realised the declaration was late and admitted that it was "embarrassing".
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Four of the Tory ministers – Truss, Coffey, Dinenage (above left) and Solloway (above right) – have still not declared their tickets in the Register of Members’ Interests.
It is understood they do not believe that it was necessary to declare as they were invited to the ceremony in a ministerial capacity.
As culture minister, Dinenage's brief covers the music industry while Solloway's covers intellectual property such as copyright.
Truss, the International Trade Secretary, is believed to have justified her attendance because pop music is a major British export
It is reported that those who have failed to declare their Brits tickets will just have to write an apology to Stone as there are concerns in Whitehall that the probe has been "overzealous".
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