‘He’s s**t SCARED’ - Jeremy Corbyn’s team fear he will be SUSPENDED from Parliament
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn and his closest aides are reportedly terrified he will be suspended from Parliament for failing to register several historic overseas trips, and are making preparations to stop deputy leader Tom Watson asserting control in his absence.
Corbyn refuses to apologise over Palestinian wreath laying
According to an investigation by the Daily Telegraph, Mr Corbyn may have failed to properly declare the expenses for at least three overseas trips taken between 2010 and 2014.
He is reportedly being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over up to nine undeclared trips he made as a backbencher.
During the period in question, MPs were required to register overseas trips which were not fully paid for by the MP or public funds if the cost exceeded £660.
Earlier this year, DUP MP Iain Paisley was suspended from Parliament for 30 days after he made two undeclared visits to Sri Lanka, which were paid for by the Sri Lankan government.
A Labour source commented on Mr Corbyn’s situation, saying: “Jeremy and the team are s**t scared of the idea of suspension.
“It’s a deep-rooted fear.”
There are serious questions over whether Mr Corbyn failed to declare at least three overseas visits, according to the Telegraph.
In 2010, he was said to have made a four-day undeclared trip to the West Bank and Israel, which was paid for by the Middle East Monitor (Memo) and Friends of al-Aqsa.
The year before Daud Abdullah, director of Memo, caused outrage by signing the Istanbul Declaration urging “victory” for Hamas over the “malicious Jewish Zionist war over Gaza”.
The trip was also attended by Labour MP Andy Slaughter, who logged it with Parliament’s Register of Members interests as costing £927.
In 2011, Mr Corbyn was said to have made the first of two unregistered trips to Tunis in Tunisia.
However, Murad Qureshi, a former Labour London Assembly member who also went on the trip, did register the costs.
It is believed the trip was paid for by the self-styled Global Peace and Unity Foundation.
Mr Corbyn went on to make a second visit to the city in 2014, this time at the invitation of Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi.
This trip became deeply controversial after Mr Corbyn was photographed attending a wreath laying ceremony by the graves of Black September terrorists linked to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.
Mr Corbyn reportedly did not register the trip with Parliamentary authorities, despite spending two nights at the five star Le Palace hotel.
However, Conservative peer Lord Sheikh, who also took part in the trip, did register the expense.
A Labour spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: “Where issues have been raised about past international trips, Jeremy’s parliamentary office will thoroughly investigate to establish if any administrative errors could have been around declaration.”
They added that Mr Corbyn is “committed to upholding the highest standards of parliamentary conduct”.