His directors’ loans totalled £2.94 million in 2018, £2.3 million in 2018-19 and £701,513 in 2019-20, Companies House documents show. He paid no interest on a director’s loan taken out in 2018, and subsequently paid £46,915 and £2,030 on further loans in 2018-19 and 2019-2020, respectively.
There is no mention of directors’ loans in the category one rules surrounding the register of interests, which requires the declaration of taxable expenses, allowances, benefits, salaries and fees.
In a statement, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Saliston is 100 per cent owned by me and this is declared clearly in the Commons register and to the Cabinet Office. It has no activities that interact with government policy.
“The loans from 2018 were primarily taken out for the purchase and refurbishment of 7 Cowley Street as temporary cash flow measures. All loans have either been paid with interest in accordance with HMRC rules or paid as dividends and taxed accordingly.
“The register asks for earnings, not loans, which is why I was declared as a non-remunerated director until I resigned on entering government. Loans are not earnings and are not declarable in the register of interests.”
It comes after a row over MPs’ work outside the Commons ignited by allegations over lobbying by Owen Paterson, who resigned last month after a report into his involvement with two companies.
During a Commons debate last month, Mr Rees-Mogg said the Government regards MPs having “a wider focus than the Westminster bubble” as a “historic strength” of the parliamentary system.
“The profusion of perspectives, be they corporate, trade union or charitable, brings a welcome variety to this place, and enhances the quality of challenge we hear in debate and throughout the business of the House,” he said.
Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds North West, used the same debate to challenge Mr Rees-Mogg on the Mail On Sunday’s reports about his borrowing.
“What I would like to know is whether the Leader of the House declared the loan and the details of it to the permanent secretary,” he said. “The public are getting the impression that this Government are just marking their own homework, and obviously the Prime Minister makes adjudications on the ministerial code.”
He subsequently invited him to offer an explanation, something the Leader of the Commons chose not to do.
Mr Sobel said on Wednesday that he was “delighted” the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner had launched an investigation into Mr Rees-Mogg.
