NEW: Scott Benton boasts about 'ways around' keeping corporate freebies off the books to avoid declaring with Parliament
Scott Benton has said MPs have been able to keep corporate freebies off of parliamentary books by skirting the rules regarding gifts and having to declare them with Westminster officials.
Rules stipulate that MPs must declare to parliament corporate hospitality gifts of more than £300. But, in the video, Mr Benton suggested that politicians are getting around this by putting fake lower prices on them. He said companies offering hospitality "try to be quite cute about the level of the hospitality" so that it "falls just under" the limit.
He laughed while recounting how he has regularly told the value of his ticket for a day at the races was £295, just under the threshold. He said: "So without saying too much, you would be amazed at the number of times I've been to the raced and the ticket comes to £295... there are ways around it, absolutely."
Mr Benton was last night suspended by the Tories following the initial undercover report from The Times that claimed he offered to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling industry investors. He denies the claims, but self-referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards following the investigation going live.
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