Senior Tory MP faces lobbying questions over Treasury role

A senior Tory MP is facing questions over whether he used his Commons Treasury committee role to lobby for changes to post-Brexit City rules that stand to benefit the industry where he has a second job.

- Richard Partington , Kalyeena Makortoff

John Baron, who in addition to his role as an MP is co-owner and chief investment officer of Baron & Grant Investment Management, used at least three meetings of the influential committee to request "urgent" changes to rules on investment trusts, which his firm specialises in managing.

This includes two hearings with Jeremy Hunt on the chancellor's autumn statement and spring budget. At one hearing, Baron called for "immediate action" and "fasttrack legislation" to support the UK's £260bn investment trust sector as part of the chancellor's "Edinburgh reforms" deregulation package.

He also used a committee meeting in December with Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to ask for "assurance" that rapid action would be taken to "iron out these problems".

Baron declares his financial interests in the parliamentary register, including a stake of at least 15% in Baron & Grant, and a £500 payment for five hours' work a month as chair of its investment committee.

The MP told the chancellor investors were "shunning" investment trusts and withdrawing money from the sector because of "overzealous regulation" that the government needed to change.