Tory candidate for Shipley spent £100,000 on research company run by founder of anti-political correctness campaign

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Yorkshire Tory candidate MP Philip Davies spent more than £100,000 of taxpayers’ money on research from a little-known consultancy run by an anti-political correctness campaigner, according to a political website.

In an investigation by the news website openDemocracy opposition politicians and campaigners have asked why Mr Davies - who is defending a majority of over 4,000 in Shipley - used public funds to purchase research from a London-based consultancy called the Big Ben Partnership.

The Big Ben Partnership is run by the co-founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness. The only public reference to the consultancy’s work appears to be a citation in a men’s rights publication.

But Mr Davies said if he hired a researcher for his office, the cost to the taxpayer would be far higher. He said: “£100,000 over seven years is around £14,000 a year - much less than employing someone directly. Therefore you should be commending me for saving taxpayer’s money.”

Conservative candidate for Shipley, Philip Davies. Photo: JPI Media

OpenDemocracy found, through Freedom of Information Act requests to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), that Mr Davies has spent more than £100,000 on external research from the Big Ben Partnership from his MPs’ expenses since 2012.

The vast majority of MPs pay their researchers directly and IPSA said Mr Davies’ practice was “not necessarily wrong”, however they did ask in October last year for him to provide "a detailed breakdown of all work and activities carried out”.

Mr Davies says that the money was spent on speech writing and research for parliamentary questions and amendments for bills.