Big John

The Government has placed its confidence in John Whittingdale to deliver a new process of 'natural justice' to MPs accused of wrongdoing. 

Mr Whittingdale, whose worldly perspicacity failed to spot that the glamorous woman who agreed to accompany him to an MTV event in Amsterdam was a sex-worker, and whose personal code of conduct only brought him to declare the benefit in kind when prodded by newspapers, was a beneficiary of £8,000 from a company called Aquind for his 2020 election fighting fund. 

Aquind is effectively a single-purpose company wishing to build a giant electric cable between Lovedean near Portsmouth and a substation at Barnabos in Normandy. Presumably they wanted to see Mr Whittingdale, an Essex MP, re-elected simply for the joy of his politics.  In January 2020, Aquind donated £10,000 to Alok Sharma.  In February two Aquind directors shared a £12,000 table with Mr Sharma at the Tories’ Black and White Ball fundraiser.

Last month, the current Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng extended the deadline for the Aquind planning application to January 2022 - a second extension.