Housing secretary must explain dealings with billionaire property developer who gave Tories £12,000 donation, Labour demands

Robert Jenrick quashed his own decision on 1,500-property plan after accepting it was unlawful

Britain's Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick holds a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) digital news conference in March 2019 (Reuters)

Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick is facing demands to come to parliament and explain his dealings with Richard Desmond, after it emerged that the billionaire property developer made a cash donation to the Conservatives days after the MP unlawfully approved one of his schemes.

Mr Jenrick’s Labour shadow Steve Reed said the housing secretary must now publish all correspondence related to the planning decision, warning that there must be no “cash for favours” within the system.

Democracy watchdog the Electoral Commission revealed that Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Tories on 29 January, two weeks after Mr Jenrick gave the go-ahead to his plan to build 1,500 homes on the site of a former printworks on east London’s Isle of Dogs.

The decision overturned previous rejections by the local council and independent planning inspectorate and came just a day before changes to the system which would have cost the developer’s company Northern & Shell an additional £30-£50m.

After the council mounted a legal challenge in the High Court, Mr Jenrick accepted that his original decision had been “unlawful by reason of apparent bias”, quashed the decision and said he would take no further part in decisions about the application.

It was later reported that Mr Desmond and Mr Jenrick shared a table at a Tory fundraising dinner last November, although the housing secretary insisted that he refused to discuss the application.

After Mr Desmond’s donation was revealed in the Electoral Commission’s regular three-monthly report on political donations Mr Reed said: “We’ve been calling for Robert Jenrick to publish all correspondence related to this decision.

“After this latest revelation he must make a full statement to parliament. There can be no question of cash for favours in the planning process.”

Shadow housing minister Mike Amesbury added: “This is yet another indication that Robert Jenrick’s unlawful decision to approve this planning decision against the wishes of the local council was done to benefit Richard Desmond, a wealthy Tory donor, to the tune of millions of pounds.

“This latest revelation comes hours after Jenrick announced new plans to remove planning decisions from locally elected councillors, enabling ministers to take more decisions over the heads of local communities for the benefit of their wealthy friends.

“Robert Jenrick should come clean and publish all correspondence with Richard Desmond about this case – otherwise the public will be entitled to think it’s one rule for the Conservatives and their wealthy friends, and another rule for everyone else.”

Former owner of the ‘Daily Express’, Richard Desmond (Alamy)

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Government policy is in no way influenced by party donations – they are entirely separate.

“Donations to the Conservative Party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law.”

A 10 Downing Street source said: “Mr Jenrick acted in accordance with the department’s guidance on prosperity in planning and like all applications it was decided on its individual merits, party political considerations are never taken into account It was redetermined on a technical point of planning law."

There was no immediate answer from Northern & Shell to a request for a comment.