Possible lobbying rules breach by Welsh Labour MP investigated

Labour Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones is under investigation for a possible breach of lobbying rules.

The Commons Standards Commissioner is investigating whether she broke the MPs' code of conduct with "paid advocacy" over a trip to Japan.

MPs receiving payments or benefits such as hospitality or gifts must not use their parliamentary position to benefit the organisation who gave it to them.

Ms Davies-Jones is understood to have referred herself to investigators.

The MP, elected to Westminster in 2019 and shadow culture minister, is said to be cooperating fully with Commons Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg's investigation.

She received a trip to Tokyo valued at nearly £3,000 paid for by the British Council last autumn.

On 8 November, the day after returning, she brought up the trip in the House of Commons, praising the British Council's "brilliant work" in "educating people in our English language and using our arts and culture for the greatest good".

She asked Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan: "What more can the government do to support the British Council, not just in Japan, but across the world?"

Labour said it was not suspending Ms Davies-Jones as shadow culture minister because the party believes any breach of the rules would be minor and inadvertent.