Robert Jenrick to release documents relating to £1bn property row involving Tory donor after pressure from Labour

Housing secretary accused of ‘cash for favours’ over housing development

The housing secretary has promised to release documents relating to the controversial approval of a £1bn property development involving a Tory party donor.

Robert Jenrick was dragged before parliament by Labour to answer questions over his approval of the Westferry Printworks project in east London, weeks before the developer Richard Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservatives.

Mr Jenrick said he wanted to end “wild accusations” and “baseless innuendo” from Labour as the shadow housing secretary Steve Reed said he had “blown apart confidence in the planning system”.

The row comes after Mr Jenrick overruled the housing inspector and Tower Hamlets Council to approve the scheme for 1,500 apartments in January.

He later reversed the ruling following legal action by the council, admitting that what he did was “unlawful by reason of apparent bias”.

It later emerged that Mr Jenrick sat beside Mr Desmond at a Tory fundraising dinner in November 2019, where the developer said he showed the cabinet minister a video of the development on his phone.

Mr Jenrick told MPs: “I recognise that there are higher standards of transparency expected in the quasi-judicial planning process, which is why I will also release discussions and correspondence which the government would not normally release.

“These documents show that contrary to the wild accusations and the baseless innuendo propagated by [shadow housing secretary Steve Reed], and restated today in a series of totally inaccurate statements and comments, this was a decision taken with an open mind on the merits of the case after a thorough decision-making process.”

Mr Reed urged the housing secretary to publish the documents to “restore trust in a sector that will be so critical in rebuilding Britain after the lockdown”.

He also questioned Mr Jenrick’s actions at the fundraising dinner, where he admitted to being asked about the development by Mr Desmond.

Mr Reed said: “Ministers are not allowed to take planning decisions if they have been lobbied by the applicant and, under the ministerial code, ministers are required not to place themselves under an obligation by, for instance, helping to raise funds from a donor who stands to benefit from the decisions they make because it raises questions about cash for favours – which would be a serious abuse of power.”

He asked why Mr Jenrick did not ask to be reseated somewhere else or immediately recuse himself from involvement in the decision.

He said: “It’s very hard to imagine the issue of Westferry did not crop up during the three hours or so that the secretary of state must have sat next to the owner of Northern and Shell and three of his most senior executives.”

Mr Jenrick said he was seated next to Mr Desmond at the Conservative dinner, adding: “I hadn’t planned to have any contact with Mr Desmond prior to the event, this was the first time I had ever met him.

“He raised the development and invited me on a site visit. I informed him that it would not be appropriate to discuss the matter and the conversation moved onto other topics. After the event, we exchanged messages again, as the record will show I advised him that I was unable to discuss the application or to pass comment.

“I informed my officials of my contact with Mr Desmond and I will publish these messages for transparency. On advice from my officials, I declined the site visit.”

He said the accusations made against him were “not simply wrong but actually outrageous”, but he admitted “things could and should have been done differently”.

Mr Jenrick also said that allegations over his involvement in the Jockey Club’s development project at the Sandown Park racecourse and an application to build a new Holocaust memorial were “inaccurate”.