Thread by @johnestevens

Understand that Robert Jenrick is refusing to answer Urgent Question in the Commons this morning on this

Junior minister Chris Pincher is being sent in his place

https://twitter.com/johnestevens/status/1270617964228870145

Housing minister Simon Clarke on Sky News earlier insisting Robert Jenrick is a “good man and a good minister” who has done nothing wrong

Unclear why he doesn’t want to answer Qs in the Commons if nothing to hide

Timeline of what happened 👇

November 2019: Jenrick & Desmond sit together at Tory dinner 🍽️

14 January: Jenrick overrules Planning Inspectorate & local council to approve £1bn Desmond development a day before £40m charge came in 🏘️

28 January: Desmond gives Tories £12k 💸

Robert Jenrick has since admitted approval was "unlawful by reason of apparent bias" and it has been quashed

Labour's @SteveReedMP is demanding that he release all correspondence relating to his decision

Confirmed: Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is a no-show in the Commons

He has sent junior minister Chris Pincher to answer Qs on his unlawful approval of £1bn Desmond development & the £12k Tory donation two weeks later

Labour's @SteveReedMP says the sequence of events "raises grave concerns about cash for favours"

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle slaps down Tory backbenchers for trying to move debate away from questions about Robert Jenrick

"We are straying off what the UQ is about"

Hoyle has now rejected two irrelevant questions from Tory MPs as they desperately try to run down the clock in the UQ

It is frankly embarrassing watching Tory backbenchers doing the whips' bidding by trying to turn this into a row about Sadiq Khan 🙄