MP Bob Laxton paid £34k by county builders

A CITY MP has accepted thousands of pounds worth of donations from a Derbyshire-based construction firm.

Over a ten- year period, Derby North MP Bob Laxton says he was given approximately £34,000 by the firm Bowmer and Kirkland, which has its head office in Heage.

The donations, which are all correctly recorded in the parliamentary register of members' interests, were given to help pay for the cost of running Mr Laxton's constituency office.

Mr Laxton, leader of Derby City Council before he became an MP in 1997, said: "The donations were given from the company towards helping open up my Derby office and pay the rent.

"They thought I had done good things for Derby, were happy that I'd become an MP and wanted me to continue to work for the city."

Under parliamentary rules all MPs must register any donations they receive from third parties.

The official register shows that between 1997-8 and 2007-8 Mr Laxton received four donations of about £5,000 and five donations of about £6,500 from the construction firm.

There were three further registered entries for donations which did not specify an amount. Mr Laxton explained, however, that they were worth about £1,000 each.

The Labour MP agreed that the sum total of all the donations over the 10 years amounted to about £34,000.

However, one political opponent of Mr Laxton said the public might have questions about such donations, which would not "help the image of politics".

In 2007 Bowmer and Kirkland won a £38m contract to transform The Roundhouse, at Pride Park, for Derby College – the scheme was completed in 2009.

Mr Laxton was involved in helping Derby College liaise with East Midlands Development Agency and Derby City Council in the project's earlier stages.

The Conservative candidate for Derby North, Stephen Mold, said: "I don't think that anything improper has taken place here.

"But there might be questions that come up in people's minds and I don't think that helps the image of politics given everything that we've been through recently.

"I can only say that there needs to be 100% transparency and there need to be the tightest possible rules on MPs accepting money from third parties. MPs also need to think about what they do very carefully."

However, Mr Laxton said there was no conflict of interest because he had absolutely no contact with Bowmer and Kirkland regarding the Roundhouse or any other scheme in the city.

He said: "Before the Roundhouse, Derby College did not have a presence in the city and I brought them together with the council to see if there was potential to bring the college to that site.

"I had absolutely no contact with Bowmer and Kirkland over the Roundhouse and had nothing to do with the awarding of the contract, which was done by Derby College."

A spokesman for Bowmer and Kirkland, which employs 350 at its headquarters in Heage, said: "The Roundhouse project was subject to a European Union procurement process.

"That means we are required to go through a pre-qualification process before we are invited to tender. We bid and won the contract for the scheme through a competitive tender. We bid to Derby College and its advisers."

When asked why it had donated to Mr Laxton's office, the firm did not want to comment further.

Meanwhile the college itself also said that it was legally bound to follow UK and EU rules relating to the contracts.

A spokesperson said: "Regulations lay down strict selection and award criteria that are fully transparent and auditable.

"These regulations were strictly followed, from the initial advertising of the contract in the Official Journal of the European Union through to its final award."