More than 50 MPs have owned stakes in publicly listed companies that raise questions about possible conflicts of interest and that until now have been in effect secret, the Guardian can reveal. Parliamentary rules mean MPs’ shareholdings, including ones held by former prime minister Theresa May and former education secretary Gavin Williamson, do not need to be publicly disclosed in parliamentary registers. As a result, voters are left in the dark about some of the financial interests of their elected representatives.
The Guardian is publishing a list of several dozen MPs who currently have shares in banks, housebuilders, defence companies, energy suppliers and supermarkets – companies that could be affected by legislation or new policy introduced by parliament. The companies include Barclays, HSBC, BP and Sainsbury’s. Almost all of the holdings found are not strictly required to be publicly declared under current transparency requirements. Parliamentary rules, unchanged since 2015, require MPs to register holdings they have in a single company when they own more than 15% of its shares or when their shares in it are worth more than £70,000.
Transparency campaigners have said the findings “raise serious questions about vested interests in our democracy” and called for the rules to be reviewed. Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said: “If an MP has shares in a company affected by legislation going through parliament, there’s invariably a tension between them protecting their financial affairs and advancing the public good. Having these details out in the open is a key safeguard against abuse of public office.”
The list of MPs with shareholdings includes the chair of the environment select committee, Robert Goodwill; Conservative backbencher Desmond Swayne; shadow business minister Seema Malhotra; and SNP chief whip Brendan O’Hara. All these holdings are below the threshold. The investigation also established that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had a financial stake in National Grid until two days before he was selected as the Conservative candidate for his constituency. Sunak said he had put his current investments into a blind trust in July 2019.
May owned shares in BP while she was home secretary, while her husband held shares in BP, Barclays, BT and Centrica. Four months after she became prime minister these shares also seem to have been moved into a blind trust. The majority of the shareholdings found fall under the £70,000 threshold, but the investigation has uncovered apparent conflicts of interest, including May holding meetings with BT as home secretary while her husband held shares in the company, which had not been publicly disclosed. A spokesperson said May “entirely rejects any suggestion that she breached parliamentary rules or the ministerial code” and added that she had introduced legislation not in BT’s interest.
Even shareholdings under the threshold could still need to be declared under House of Commons rules requiring MPs to publicly disclose any interests that might reasonably be thought to influence their actions, speeches or votes in parliament. This requires MPs themselves to make the judgment on whether to declare or not, and campaigners have suggested the current threshold is therefore too high. The investigation has identified ministers who have met lobbyists for companies, including BP, while not declaring the shares held by themselves or their close family.
