Joani Reid, the MP who resigned from the Labor seat last week after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, received a donation from her company the previous month, it emerged.
Reid, who said after the arrest that she had no involvement in her husband’s business activities, declared in February a donation worth £2,400 for media training from Earthcott Ltd, the lobbying firm run by David Taylor.
The East Kilbride and Strathaven MP said she would resign as Labor whip pending an internal Labor investigation, a day after Taylor was arrested by counter-terrorism police under the National Security Act along with two other men.
In a statement at the time, Reid said she had never discussed Chinese affairs or visited China, and had not seen anything that led her to believe her husband had broken the law. And she added: “I am not part of my husband’s business activities.”
A source close to Reid said that Earthcott paid for the media training and that his statement was consistent with the statement, as receiving a donation from a company was not the same as participating in its activities.
Taylor, 39, was released on bail, as were the two other men arrested, Matthew Aplin, 43, and Steve Jones, 68.
Aplin previously worked as an adviser to the Labor Party in Wales. Jones was an adviser to former Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones and Hilary Armstrong, the former Labor leader.
Reid’s statement read: “This week has been the worst of my life. The shock of the last few days has been difficult for me and my family.
“I want to reiterate something very important: I am not being investigated by the police and no accusations have been made against me. I have done nothing wrong.”
Taylor was a special adviser to Labor peer Peter Hain when he was Secretary of State for Wales and has since been a lobbyist at Earthcott, his own company.
On Friday, James Robinson, a former aide to former Labor deputy leader Tom Watson, said police searched the home he shares with his wife, former Labor MP Gloria De Piero, as part of the same investigation.
Robinson, founder and director of Woburn Partners and former media correspondent for The Guardian, said: “I would like to make it absolutely clear that I have not been detained, arrested or questioned in relation to this or any other matter.”
