Want to talk to your MP? Go to a fundraiser, says minister

Business minister Nadhim Zahawi was sent out to bat for his colleague Robert Jenrick on the Today programme this morning and let’s just say it didn’t quite go to plan. The housing secretary faces a cash-for-favours row over allegations he gave preferential treatment to a Tory donor and his multi-million pound planning bid after the pair chatted at a Conservative fundraiser, an allegation Jenrick strongly denies. Zahawi, however, didn’t help the matter. When asked why normal voters ‘don’t have this kind of access’, the minister told listeners:

If people go to a fundraiser in their local area, [for example] in Doncaster, for the Conservative party, they’d be sitting next to MPs and other people in their local authority. People can interact with different parts of their authority. The important thing, by the way, [is] the access didn’t buy this billionaire a decision.

Perhaps not the best way to calm accusations of preferential treatment…