Tory MP’s £500,000 stock portfolio raises questions about blind trust system

Exclusive: Disclosures about ex-minister Jonathan Djanogly turn spotlight on controversial mechanism used to buy shares

• Which UK MPs own shares in publicly listed companies?

A Conservative MP and former minister is listed in shareholder registers as personally owning stakes in companies worth nearly 500,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of the controversial parliamentary blind trust" system used to purchase the shares.

Jonathan Djanogly, the Tory MP for Huntingdon, holds shares in Lloyds Bank worth more than 180,000, has an investment worth 120,000 in the housebuilding company Persimmon and a stake worth almost 80,000 in Sainsbury's. He has smaller stakes in six other companies including the energy supplier Centrica.