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His defence is that he'd already shown "proof of funds" for the house before receiving the gift. That's a pretty thin defence given that it's possible to know of the gift in advance.
But I think this is a distraction from the main point that his original defence of not declaring the gift is clear and utter bullshit: the rules are that gifts must be registered unless they “could not reasonably be thought by others to be related to membership of the house or to the member’s parliamentary or political activities". Personal security for someone in politics is clearly related to that person's political activities. The fact that he wasn't a candidate at the time of the gift is irrelevant to that relationship.
What astounds me is that I don't really think Reform voters give a shit about piddly little things like dodgy gifts - that's certainly what we see in the US, where Republicans think it's great that Trump receives jets and contracts and god knows what because it shows "he's a good businessman." They don't understand or believe or care that corruption impoverishes the country because decisions are taken for the personal interests of the ruler.
I don't think the media, there or here, realises how big of a threat that is: they're happy to report on blatant corruption as if the harms of corruption are still obvious to everyone, but they obviously are not.