Jeremy Corbyn may face a parliamentary investigation for not declaring his controversial trip where he attended a wreath-laying ceremony allegedly to honour Palestinian terrorists, the Standard can reveal.
The Labour leader’s office today refused to say who paid for his flights and accommodation during the trip to Tunis in 2014.
It was not declared by Mr Corbyn in the annual Register of MPs’ Interests because, claimed his spokesman, the costs fell below the threshold for declarations, which was then £660.
The Standard has spoken to another parliamentarian who attended the same conference who says his trip was paid for by the Tunisian government. Muslim Tory peer Lord Sheikh made a full declaration.
Conservative Party deputy chairman James Cleverly said: “If, as it seems, Mr Corbyn failed to declare this visit it should be looked into.”
The latest twist adds new pressure on the Labour leader to explain why he attended a ceremony ceremony separate from the conference that critics believe was held to honour terrorists responsible for a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Mr Corbyn was condemned by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after it emerged he was present when a wreath was laid honouring a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the murders.
The Labour leader caused confusion by saying he had been present when a wreath was laid to “those that were killed in Paris in 1992”, but he did not “think” he was involved in laying it during a visit to the Martyrs’ Cemetery. Labour said he attended the event only to remember victims of a 1985 Israeli air strike on Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) offices in Tunis. A photograph unearthed by the Daily Mail clearly shows the left-winger holding a wreath.
Israeli secret service Mossad was accused of killing terrorists behind the Olympics attack, including Atef Bseiso, a PLO intelligence chief, who was killed in the French capital in 1992.
His trip has led to outrage from those within his own party, which has been engulfed in a row about anti-Semitism. Jewish MP Luciana Berger said Mr Corbyn “being present is the same as being involved”.
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A spokesperson for the Labour leader said: “The cost of the trip did not meet the declaration threshold.” But this morning the leader’s office could not confirm who had paid for it.
It has been suggested that Mr Corbyn’s trip may have been shorter than Lord Sheikh’s, which may account for how it came under the reporting threshold. However a Labour source said: “Unless he got the deal of the decade, it seems highly unlikely that a return flight to Tunisia and hotel accomodation and meals provided would have come under the threshold.”
Lord Sheikhsaid: “There was no mention at all about any wreath-laying ceremony at the conference I attended. I knew nothing about that.”
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