The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is looking into claims Dame Margaret Hodge broke Parliamentary rules while conducting her review of the Garden Bridge.
The regulator of MP’s expenses is also said to be looking into claims that Hodge was paid £9,500 for her work, despite an announcement from London Mayor Sadiq Khan that she would be conducting the work free of charge.
Hodge was appointed by Khan to conduct an independent review into the Garden Bridge project, which is run by charity the Garden Bridge Trust, and produced a report in April that concluded the project should be scrapped at a loss of over £46m to the taxpayer.
PCS is also looking into claims that she used her Parliamentary office to conduct interviews relating to the review, which is a potential breach of Parliamentary rules.
A spokesman for the Mayor said: “Dame Margaret Hodge is hugely respected across all political parties for her work on the Public Accounts Committee holding high-profile public bodies to account. Her independent review of the Garden Bridge was detailed and forensic, in the line with her previous work as one of the UK’s leading scrutineers.”
He also clarified that the £9,500 paid to Hodge for conducting the review is in keeping with the level of payment made to the authors of other major reviews which the Mayor has commissioned, including the Harris Review which looked at improving London’s terror preparedness.
Review 'shoddily-conducted'
London Assembly member Andrew Boff said: “This shoddily-conducted review has been a total farce from start to finish. Dame Margaret Hodge has eroded all credibility in the judgement by her sloppy methods of investigation.
“This is a serious matter, one that has already cost the taxpayer a minimum of £46m, yet this review has been taken anything but seriously.
“The Mayor needs to explain why the decision was suddenly taken to pay Dame Hodge £9,500 and why there was not greater scrutiny on her ability to conduct the review.
“Having forked out almost £50m, Londoners deserve some answers.”
Following the publication of the report, the chair of the Garden Bridge Trust said it "cannot accept" Dame Margaret Hodge’s conclusion that the project should be scrapped, and has complained of inaccuracies in the report.
The Garden Bridge is a proposed footbridge and public garden over the River Thames, linking Temple with the South Bank which is being led by the Garden Bridge Trust.
Government pledged £60m towards the bridge’s cost, with £30m of this coming from Transport for London and £30m from central government. £20m of the money pledged by TfL is in the form of a loan to be repaid in full.
Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, has withdrawn support for a controversial charity project to build a Garden Bridge across the river Thames, meaning it is now unlikely to be able to proceed.
The Garden Bridge Trust was cleared by the Charity Commission earlier this year after an operational compliance report concluded that trustees were acting in compliance with charity law.
Dame Margaret Hodge was approached for comment.
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