Minister caught in lapdance club row

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale yesterday admitted accepting free hospitality from a London lapdancing club while chairing an inquiry into its licensing regime. Whittingdale and two other MPs were treated to dinner with managers and two female performers.The Cabinet minister insisted it was an official visit as part of an inquiry by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee into new laws cracking down on such establishments.However, the evening was not recorded in the committee’s published records. Nor was the visit mentioned in the committee’s report, which came out against the proposed tougher laws, which aimed to curb the spread of lapdancing clubs by classing them as “sex encounter” venues.The Lap Dancing Association organised the hospitality soon after it was set up in 2008, when it was facing a crackdown by the Labour government.Whittingdale later spoke in Parliament against the new rules, which made it easier for residents to prevent lapdancing clubs opening in their area. His speech made no mention of the visit, however.The Standard understands the first club visited by the MPs was For Your Eyes Only, in the City, where they spoke to staff, management and dancers.They went on to a second major club in the capital, where they had dinner. Two members of the select committee expressed surprise about the visit, saying they did not know of an official trip and had not received invitations. Former Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price said it was a “genuine surprise” when the Standard informed him of the visit.He said: “Whether or not they are in contravention of rules, I would have expected it to be minuted. Certainly it would seem par for the course, if it was an official visit — one would expect that at least during the private meetings of the committee it would have come up then.”Former Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders said he remembered some discussion of a potential visit, but his view was that it was “completely unnecessary” and he was never told anything was arranged.He added: “If it was official it should be mentioned in the report, it should be in the annex, what visits took place and also who went.”Whittingdale, 56, the Tory MP for Maldon in Essex, is embroiled in a series of controversies. Last week it was revealed a former girlfriend was a dominatrix, and this weekend it emerged he had relationships with a Page 3 Girl and east European women, including one who was thought to be the daughter of a former Soviet military officer.Challenged by the Standard to explain the visits, Whittingdale said that following an invitation from the Lap Dancing Association, he led trips to two clubs in central London in a single evening.His spokeswoman said a parliamentary official and two other committee members -  Conservative MP Philip Davies and Labour’s Janet Anderson - also accepted the invitation to “see the security arrangements, rules and impact on the local community.”She added: “Members visited two clubs during the evening and at one of them had dinner with the managers of the club and the association, and two girls employed there.“The girls were keen to refute the claim made by (women’s rights group) Object that they were being exploited and to emphasise the strict controls in place in the club.“John did not meet any girls except those at the dinner who talked to him about Object.”Although the Standard specifically asked whether there were naked women working in the club at the time, this was not addressed in the spokeswoman’s statement. The Standard also asked if alcohol was consumed but the question did not get a response.