Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick was forced into an embarrassing climbdown today amid ongoing questions over his role in a ‘cash for favours’ row involving a Tory donor’s £1billion housing development.
The Housing Secretary pledged to release ‘all relevant information’ relating to his approval of Richard Desmond’s Westferry Printworks scheme in East London.
Mr Jenrick made the admission as Labour prepared to stage a parliamentary vote on its demand for he and his advisers to publish all correspondence on the matter.
The minister is under fire for overruling the local council and a planning inspector to grant permission in January for the 1,500-home development, two months after sitting next to ex-Express owner at a Tory fundraising dinner.
His decision came the day before a community levy was introduced that would have cost Mr Desmond around £40million.
Mr Jenrick also waived affordable housing rules, giving the billionaire businessman an estimated £106million in extra revenue. Two weeks later, Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
Mr Jenrick has since had to quash his own approval, conceding the decision was ‘unlawful’.
In the Commons this afternoon, Mr Jenrick said further information would be released today, noting discussions and correspondence ‘which the Government would not normally release’ will be made public.
He accused Labour of making ‘wild accusations’ against him and claimed the documents would show a decision was taken with an ‘open mind’ on the merits of the case.
The Housing Secretary pledged to release ‘all relevant information’ relating to his approval of Richard Desmond’s Westferry Printworks scheme in East London
Mr Jenrick is embroiled in a ‘cash for favours’ row over his approval of Richard Desmond’s (pictured) plan for 1,500 homes in east London
Mr Jenrick also waived affordable housing rules, giving the billionaire businessman an estimated £106million in extra revenue. Two weeks later, Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
‘I will write to the chair of the select committee outlining the timeline of events and the rationale for my decision-making pertaining to the Westferry Printworks planning decision,’ he said.
‘Alongside this letter, and after a comprehensive review of what documents might be in scope of this motion, and of the letter that he sent me on behalf of his select committee, I will be releasing later today all relevant information relating to this planning matter using the Freedom of Information Act as a benchmark.
‘I recognise that there are higher standards of transparency expected in the quasi-judicial planning process which is why I will also release discussions and correspondence which the Government would not normally release.
‘These documents show that contrary to the wild accusations and the baseless innuendo propagated by the honourable gentleman (Steve Reed) opposite, and restated today in a series of totally inaccurate statements and comments, this was a decision taken with an open mind on the merits of the case after a thorough decision-making process.’
Mr Jenrick had until now resisted calls to hand over correspondence relating to his decision. Tower Hamlets Council launched a High Court challenge in March and demanded he disclose the papers.
Instead, Mr Jenrick accepted that his approval had been ‘unlawful by reason of apparent bias’ and it was quashed. He agreed to take no further part in decisions about the application.
The housing, communities and local government Commons committee has also requested he publish the correspondence. Labour called for Mr Jenrick to ‘come clean’ by releasing the documents without delay. It will hold an opposition day debate on the matter this afternoon and will force a vote on a motion that would compel the publication of the papers.
Opening the debate today, shadow communities secretary Steve Reed probed further on a Tory Party fundraising dinner in November 2019 attended by both Mr Jenrick and Mr Desmond.
He noted: ‘I understand Mr Desmond’s lobbyists, a company called Thorncliffe, had been busy selling tickets to the event to people who wanted access to the Secretary of State.’
He added: ‘Ministers are not allowed to take planning decisions if they have been lobbied by the applicant and, under the ministerial code, ministers are required not to place themselves under an obligation by, for instance, helping to raise funds from a donor who stands to benefit from the decisions they make because it raises questions about cash for favours – which would be a serious abuse of power.’
He overruled the local council and a planning inspector to grant permission in January, two months after the minister sat next to the former newspaper tycoon at a Tory fundraising dinner
‘The Government’s moral authority hangs by a thread. If the Secretary of State has nothing to hide then he has nothing to fear from publishing these documents.’
Last night Mr Jenrick was facing questions over a second planning row, involving the Jockey Club.
He has called in an application for it to build 318 homes and a hotel at Sandown Park in Esher, Surrey.
The intervention has raised concerns about conflicts of interest because of the Jockey Club’s links to senior Conservative figures and donors.
Its board includes Tory peer Baroness Harding, who oversees the Government’s coronavirus test and trace programme,
Rose Paterson, wife of Tory MP Owen Paterson, and Peter Stanley, who last year donated £5,000 to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s constituency office in Newmarket, where the Jockey Club is based.
Racehorse owner Tim Syder gave the Conservative Party £12,500 in November, shortly before he joined the Jockey Club board.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has insisted that ‘each planning appeal is taken on its own merits’.