A BIG Brother housemate has been linked to a Parliamentary lobbying scandal.
In 2021, fitness coach Harry Symonds married ex-MP Scott Benton, who was forced to resign after he was caught breaching Commons rules by offering to lobby ministers and table parliamentary questions on behalf of gambling investors.
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Harry, who declared himself as a “gay Christian” on his ITV promo tape, tonight entered the reality show.
It is not clear if he is still married to Benton, but he said in his entry interview that he currently lives on his own.
Harry said his best quality was “giving off good energy” and added: “If everything’s all doom and gloom I’ll try and bring people back to reality. So like a sense of a bit more normality.
“Not taking things to heart so much, a bit more light-hearted. That’s how I hope to be in the house.”
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In 2023, undercover reporters for the Times posing as representatives of a fake investment fund caught Benton, who was elected for the Conservatives in 2019, saying he could “call in favours” from colleagues and get “easy access” to ministers when queueing for parliamentary votes.
The Commons standards committee said Benton’s actions were an “extremely serious breach” of the rules.
The message he gave to the undercover reporters was “that he was corrupt and ‘for sale’, and that so were many other members of the house”, the standards committee’s report said.
“He communicated a toxic message about standards in parliament. We condemn Mr Benton for his comments, which unjustifiably tarnish the reputation of all MPs.”
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Harry, who says he is from Croydon and is an online coach, said he applied for the show for the experience.
He added: “I thrive on meeting new people. I live on my own at the moment, but I do thrive at the same time meeting loads of new people.
It just excites me. It’s not actually about the money or anything else that comes with it. It’s more about the experience.
“That’s the most important thing to me and the thing that excites me the most.
“And the potential of being there for eight weeks is really exciting to me for sure.”