Zac Goldsmith probed about donation declarations but rival Sadiq Khan accused of having even worse record

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Hudson is looking into allegations the Richmond Park MP did not declare donations totalling as much as £120,000 to the Register of Members Interests until five days before he announced his candidacy for Mayor.

Labour MP Neil Coyle made a former complaint about Mr Goldsmith, who admitted he may have broken some Westminster rules by registering campaign gifts after the June deadline.

But the Richmond Park MP’s Labour rival for the job, Sadiq Khan, was then accused of having an even worse record than Mr Goldsmith when it came to his own declarations.

Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam, Paul Scully, wrote to Ms Hudson alleging the Tooting MP had failed to declare donations of more than £300,000 within the required 28 day period.

An excerpt from the letter to Ms Hudson from Mr Scully MP

The donations include £60,000 from trade union Unite and £63,000 from the London Tea Exchange and Mr Scully called for an investigation into a potential breach of the code of conduct.

Mr Scully told the Richmond and Twickenham Times: “It is stuff that has been going on over a period of time and I just think it is right that these things are above board.

“It is important that if he [Mr Khan] is going to be Mayor of London he needs to be transparent and have these things in order.

“And the same goes for Zac Goldsmith. I do not doubt that Mr Goldsmith sorts his affairs out.”

MP for Sutton and Cheam Paul Scully wrote to Ms Hudson about Mr Khan's declarations

At the time of press the Commissioners' office had received the hard copy of Mr Scully’s letter, dated March 25, but it was unclear whether an inquiry into Mr Khan's declarations would be launched.

A spokesman from Mr Khan’s campaign team said: “This is desperate stuff from the Tories who are trying to distract attention from the fact that Zac Goldsmith is once again facing an official probe into his campaigns.

“What’s he got to hide?”

Mr Goldsmith’s donors include his mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, who has donated to her son nearly £30,000 plus £50,000 for his Mayoral campaign.

A spokesman from his campaign team said all donations were recorded correctly with the Electoral Commission in accordance with the rules.

The spokesman added: “Zac became aware that some donations had not been added to the Register in June last year and wrote to the Standards Commissioner to apologise and explain.

“We look forward to responding to the Commissioner.”

A spokesman from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards said there were three potential outcomes to the investigation; that there is no breach found, that there is a minor breach that can be rectified or there is a major breach.

The spokesman said: “The commissioner received an allegation but will not be releasing info about who made it until the end of the inquiry, which will be conducted in private until the findings are published.”