UK Parliament Standards Commissioner expands investigation into PM Sunak

The British parliament’s standards commissioner has announced that he will be expanding its probe into Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. This follows the existing probe launched by the watchdog over whether Sunak properly declared his wife’s shareholding in a childcare company that was set to benefit from a new government policy.

The British parliament standards commissioner would be expanding the investigation into Sunak, according to the list of inquiries that was published on the parliament website on Monday. The investigation into Sunak was extended to April 20 to cover the part of the ethics code that stated that members of parliament are not to disclose the details of any probe by the commissioner.

This follows the comments by Sunak’s spokesperson regarding the probe. The spokesperson confirmed that the ongoing probe was related to whether Sunak properly declared the shareholding of his wife in a childcare company that was set to benefit from a new government policy. The spokesperson said Sunak’s wife’s shareholding in Koru Kids was transparently declared.

“I am not going to speculate on what the commissioner is or isn’t looking into,” said the spokesperson when pressed on the extension of the probe. The investigation was initially launched on April 13.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Sunak is looking to make a deal with the European Union to make it easier for British citizens to travel to the bloc, citing people familiar with the matter. This comes as Sunak is seeking to improve relations with the EU after the UK left the bloc, with an agreement to let British nationals use the EU e-gates for passport checks to speed up border crossings.

A British official said a formal approach has yet to be made, but it has been raised by diplomats in an informal setting.

This follows the agreement between the UK and the bloc in February that revised the Northern Ireland Protocol, now called the Windsor Framework, ending a long-running dispute over trade in the region. Under the bloc’s plans that would be implemented in 2024, British citizens and “third country” nationals would be subject to biometric data to obtain a visa waiver. However, London said that this would not end delays.