Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds was at the centre of a ‘get your nails done’ row tonight over allegedly ‘inappropriate’ messages sent to a woman Labour MP, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
She reported Mr Thomas-Symonds to the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team for repeatedly sending her WhatsApp messages about a nail bar in his Torfaen constituency and advising her to use its services.
That apparently included pointing out that the nail bar was called ‘NTS’, the initials by which he is referred to at Westminster, and saying ‘you should get your nails done there’.
He is also said to have added a light-hearted reference to the state of Labour politics, adding in reference to the NTS nail bar: ‘Well, at least I’ll have something to do if all goes wrong.’
But what sources close to Mr Thomas-Symonds described as light-hearted exchanges were taken as inappropriate by the woman who passed the messages on to the propriety and ethics team.
And her complaints reached as high as Sir Laurie Magnus, the Government’s Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards.
The Cabinet Office insisted that ‘no evidence of improper behaviour’ was found and with sources close to Mr Thomas-Symonds saying that the Prime Minister was made aware of the facts and accepted the Independent Advisor’s recommendation.
Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds was at the centre of a ‘get your nails done’ row last night over allegedly ‘inappropriate’ messages sent to a woman Labour MP, the Mail on Sunday can reveal
But last night, the woman MP – who has asked not to be named – flatly contradicted that and claimed the Minister had been warned about his behaviour.
She also claimed that she was asked by Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to pass her messages to the propriety and ethics team as there had been other issues with Mr Thomas-Symonds’s behaviour.
However, sources close to Mr Thomas-Symonds insisted there was no formal investigation into him, only a ‘fact-finding’ exercise.
They added: ‘The messages were between two friends, and they were misinterpreted.
‘They were never intended to be malicious and the two remain friends, and in contact.’
In a statement, the Cabinet Office said: ‘The Propriety and Ethics Team looked into an exchange of messages with a single individual.
‘No evidence of improper behaviour was found and no further action was taken.’
But the woman MP took issue with that last night.
She also protested that she had only put forward her complaints on condition of anonymity, only for her identity to become known.
