Graham Brady MP: Foreign trips and rule breaches

Graham Brady is the MP for Altrincham and Sale West

A BBC investigation has revealed that more than 20 MPs have breached rules in relation to registering and declaring overseas trips paid for by foreign governments.

The trips taken by Graham Brady, his relevant parliamentary activities and his reply to the BBC are below.

Gibraltar

Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West Graham Brady visited Gibraltar in September 2006 and September 2007 on trips paid for by the government of Gibraltar. The trips were registered.

Following his second trip, Mr Brady signed the following early day motion without declaring an interest. However, he contends it was "uncontentious" and therefore did not meet the test of relevance for making a declaration.

1. GIBRALTAR SERVICES POLICE / 14.07.2008 / EDM 2026

Reply

In response, Mr Brady told the BBC: "These visits were properly and promptly registered.

DECLARING FOREIGN TRIPS Any MP who has an overseas trip paid for by a foreign government must register it within four weeks They must declare a financial interest if it "might reasonably be thought by others to influence the speech, representation or communication in question" This includes when tabling questions, motions, bills or amendments, and when speaking out during Commons proceedings Members may not, for example, call for increased UK financial assistance to the government which provided the hospitality Q&A - MPs' foreign trips rules

"Early day motion 2026, to which you refer, was one congratulating a UK Ministry of Defence police unit, which protects British military installations, on its 70th anniversary and does not as far as I can see meet the criterion of 'relevance' for declaration set out in [the MPs' code of conduct].

"I added my signature more than 10 months after the first visit and before I had been invited to visit again.

"I regard the early day motion as entirely uncontentious and certainly I did not endorse it at the behest of the government of Gibraltar (or the MoD)."

Mr Brady added that Gibraltar was a British overseas territory and "not foreign" and he does not believe he has broken the rules inadvertently or deliberately.

Other MPs who have breached the rules:

David Amess Norman Baker Crispin Blunt Colin Breed David Burrowes Andrew Dismore Jim Dobbin Alan Duncan Liam Fox Mike Hancock Lindsay Hoyle

Paul Keetch Bob Laxton David Lepper Andrew Love Madeleine Moon Mike Penning Andrew Rosindell Richard Spring Theresa Villiers Rudi Vis