Conservative MP Tim Yeo has rejected claims he used his position as chairman of a powerful House of Commons committee to help business clients.
The chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee said he had referred himself to Westminster's sleaze watchdog in a bid to clear his name and he was confident he had acted appropriately at all times.
In the latest journalistic sting to allege wrongdoing in relation to lobbying, reporters approached Mr Yeo posing as representatives of a South Korean solar energy company offering to hire him as a paid advocate to push for new laws to boost its business. The fee offered was £7000 a day.
The backbencher, who represents South Suffolk, apparently said he could not speak out publicly for the firm they claimed to represent because "people will say he's saying this because of his commercial interest".
Yet, the former environment minister reportedly assured them: "What I say to people in private is another matter altogether."
Video footage showed Mr Yeo seemingly suggesting he had coached a paying client on how to influence the committee. "I was able to tell him in advance what he should say," he said.
The chairman excused himself from asking questions at the committee hearing because of the conflict of interest.
The Commons code of conduct forbids members from acting as paid advocates, including by lobbying ministers.
Yesterday, Mr Yeo, the latest in a line of politicians caught up in lobbying stings, was scheduled to do broadcast interviews, but pulled out at the last minute.
In a statement, he said: "I want to make clear that I totally reject these allegations."
The MP complained quotes from the video recording were chosen "very selectively" and obtained clandestinely during a conversation in a restaurant that lasted almost 90 minutes.
Mr Yeo said his lawyer had tried, unsuccessfully, to get the whole recording, which he insisted would "demonstrate clearly that at no stage did I agree or offer to work for the fictitious company these undercover reporters claimed to be representing, still less did I commit to doing so for a day a month as the article claims".
The backbencher also denied coaching John Smith from GB Rail Freight, which is a subsidiary of Groupe Eurotunnel SA, of which Mr Yeo is a director and shareholder.
"I spoke briefly to Mr Smith about his forthcoming appearance in front of the committee to explain that, because of the business connection between us, I would not take part in questioning him. I did not want him to think that my silence indicated a lack of interest in what he was saying. I did not 'coach' John Smith on this or any other occasion."
The Tory backbencher said he had also refused a request from the undercover reporters to establish an All Party Parliamentary Group on behalf of their ficticious client and that he had also declined to give names of other MPs who might be interested in joining such a group.
Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, defended the press over the lobbying stings, saying: "If you become paranoid about the press, they're just doing their job, that's all they're doing. If you're obeying the rules, you've got nothing much to fear."
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