Geoffrey Robinson accused of employing friend even after he had power of attorney over her

Police have said they are looking into possible “irregularities” over parliamentary expenses claims after reports that a former Labour MP and minister employed a friend as a member of staff until shortly before her death aged 90.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Geoffrey Robinson, who stood down at the election after representing Coventry North West for 43 years, employed the woman even after he gained power of attorney over her affairs, and when she was too frail to look after herself.

The newspaper said it had seen leaked emails showing Robinson told the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which regulates MPs’ expenses, in January 2018 that Brenda Price worked 30 hours a week as his constituency financial officer – three months after she gave him power of attorney. The paper said she had worked for him since 1997.

Power of attorney is a legal document that allows someone else to make decisions on your behalf, including financial ones, if you are unable or unwilling to do so yourself.

The paper said Ipsa decided to pass the matter to police. A Metropolitan police statement said: “In December 2019, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority made a referral to the Met in relation to possible expense claims irregularities in relation to an individual. This is currently being assessed.”

Price died last month aged 90, the Mail on Sunday said. Robinson has not commented.

A wealthy businessman before he became an MP in 1976, Robinson was paymaster general in Tony Blair’s first government in 1997 but resigned after 18 months after it emerged he had lent almost £400,000 to fellow minister Peter Mandelson to help him buy a house.

Robinson, 81, was suspended from the Commons for three weeks in 2001 for failing to register a commercial contract that he made in 1990 with a company owned by the subsequently disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell.

Robinson had apologised to the Commons for “inadvertently” misleading the standards and privileges committee, saying he had never received the agreed £200,000 payment and had forgotten about the matter.

A report by the standards committee said Robinson had failed to give “full and accurate” answers over the payment, calling this “a serious breach of the rules of the house”.