Have British politicians broken lobbying rules by asking questions about Northern Cyprus?

Shortly before she lost her parliamentary seat in the UK elections this summer, Pauline Latham asked the government a seemingly innocuous question: had there been discussions about the “potential advantages” of allowing direct flights to the so-called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”? ”?

Nusrat Ghani, a conservative who served as minister of business and trade, responded by pointing out that only Türkiye recognizes the breakaway state in Cyprus.

UK policy is that only the government of the Republic of Cyprus has the authority to allow international flights to the north, Ghani explained. “Therefore, you cannot fly direct between the UK and the north of Cyprus.”

As it turns out, Latham’s question was asked just a few months after a February visit to the region – organized by a group working for international recognition of northern Cyprus as an independent state.

Over the past two years, the Freedom and Justice for Northern Cyprus group has coordinated the travel of more than a dozen British politicians, posting photos on social media of their meetings with officials, including Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

OCCRP found that six politicians involved in the study later asked questions about northern Cyprus in parliament. All of them declared a paid trip in their register of interests. However, records show that only one of them also expressed interest when he asked questions, as required by parliament’s rules.

Latham, who expressed no interest before asking two questions in parliament on northern Cyprus, said she “didn’t realize” she had to do so.

“It’s one of those things where I missed something,” she told OCCRP by phone, adding that the visit to northern Cyprus helped her “understand the intricacies.”

“I didn’t know the whole history of northern Cyprus,” Latham said. “These visits are valuable because they open your eyes to other things in the world that you had no idea about before you went.”

Another politician said he had declared his interest, but it was not recorded due to a “clerical error”.

Failure to submit a declaration of interests before questions are asked in parliament breaches lobbying laws, according to Ian Blackford, who previously headed a group of Scottish National Party MPs in the British Parliament. Blackford is currently a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which advises the Prime Minister.

“There are flashing red lights here,” he said in an interview. “Parliamentarians should act honestly and honestly. For MPs and Lords not to declare their interests in this way is the exact opposite of that.”

British politicians are prohibited from “initiating parliamentary proceedings” that could result in “any financial or material benefit” to a foreign government, non-governmental organization or other agency “that has funded a visit or provided hospitality to them within the last 12 months,” the rules read. .

“Let us not forget that these are parliamentarians going into a stripped territory that is subject to UN resolutions,” said Blackford, who has written to parliamentary authorities calling for an investigation in light of the OCCRP findings.

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Parliamentary records show that in the entire decade to 2023, the UK government asked only 15 questions containing the phrase “Northern Cyprus”.

And politicians asked 26 questions from January 1, 2023, to the July 4 election that knocked the Conservatives out of power and cost Latham her parliamentary seat.

Eight of these questions were asked by Sammy Wilson, a member of parliament for the Northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party, which supports further union with the UK. He also wrote opinions arguing that Britain should support the independence of northern Cyprus.