Chris Heaton-Harris

Heaton-Harris accepted tickets for himself and his family to attend four events at the London 2012 Olympics relating to swimming, diving, gymnastics, plus the closing ceremony, as a gift from Coca-Cola. The value of the gifts (£11,750) was the highest amount received by any MP. He declared them in the Register of Members' Interests.[5]

In 2017, he accepted a ticket and hospitality for an NFL game at Wembley worth £479 from NFL UK.

In November 2012, covert video footage of Heaton-Harris discussing the role of James Delingpole in the Corby by-election were published on The Guardian website. The recording, made by Greenpeace, appeared to show the MP's support for Delingpole's independent, anti-windfarm candidacy, at a time when Heaton-Harris was engaged by the Conservatives to run the unsuccessful campaign of their own candidate, Christine Emmett.

Heaton-Harris indicated that this was linked to a plan by core members of the Conservative Party to emasculate the Climate Change Act by making its commitments advisory rather than mandatory.[8] After Heaton-Harris apologised for the impression he gave in the video, Home Secretary Theresa May said he was guilty only of silly bragging, while Labour's Michael Dugher MP urged Prime Minister David Cameron to show leadership and punish him.[9] The Corby by-election was subsequently lost by the Conservatives with a swing to Labour of 12.8 per cent.[10]

In October 2017, the Eurosceptic Heaton-Harris wrote to the vice-chancellors of every university in the UK, requesting the names of academics lecturing on Brexit and copies of all course material, leading to claims of political interference in academic freedom, as well as censorship. The move was described as "McCarthyite" by Prof Kevin Featherstone, head of the European Institute at the London School of Economics, and "sinister" by Prof David Green, the vice-Chancellor of Worcester University who likened it to Newspeak and the Thought Police from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: the Dean of Durham Law School, Thom Brooks, called it "dog whistle politics at its worst",[11] while Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, called the letter an act of "idiotic and offensive Leninism".[12] In addition, the letter attracted criticism from both pro-Remain and pro-Leave academics at London's Queen Mary and Cambridge universities and a rebuke from Downing Street.[13][14][15]

Responding the next day to the widespread and growing criticism from both politicians and academics, universities minister Jo Johnson suggested that Heaton-Harris might have been researching a possible book on "the evolution of attitudes" to Europe, rather than acting in his role as a government minister, and "probably didn't appreciate the degree to which (the letter) would be misinterpreted",[16] although there was no mention of any research for a possible book in the original letter. On the 17 February 2019, he admitted that there had never been any plans for a book.[17]

Heaton-Harris chaired the European Research Group, a group of Eurosceptic MPs, from 2010 until November 2016. Subscriptions totalling £13,850 were claimed as a parliamentary expense. But at the same time he sat on the wide-ranging powers of the European Scrutiny Committee, set up to monitor legislation from Brussels.[18]

In a separate issue documents from the House of Commons catering department released via Freedom of Information to openDemocracy show Heaton-Harris hosted an ERG breakfast meeting in October 2017, despite taking over as a government whip in July 2016. Continuing to chair the group while he was a member of the government contravenes the ministerial code, section 7.12 of which states: "Ministers should take care to ensure that they do not become associated with non-public organisations whose objectives may in any degree conflict with Government policy and thus give rise to a conflict of interest." However, a government spokesperson stated that they did not view it as a breach.[19]