New rules are set to be introduced to tighten transparency requirements around ministerial hospitality following a recent controversy over donations to Labour ministers. The disclosure data will now have to extend to include hospitality associated with an MP’s government job, currently only published by departments without a requirement to specify the value nor its frequency. MPs are obliged to declare gifts and hospitality worth more than £300 relating to “parliamentary or political activities” and they also have to list them in transparency records updated every 28 days, stating the donor and estimated value. However, since a rule change introduced by David Cameron, ministers are allowed to declare hospitality linked to their government job in their departmental declarations published every three months, where an estimated value is not required. Critics have highlighted this discrepancy and the rules are now to be amended to close this “loophole” in the ministerial rulebook.
The issue has stirred criticism such as that from MP Rosie Duffield who declared she will be leaving the Labour Party, citing that the leadership seems “more about greed and power than making a difference.” The new provision will not change the hospitality allowed, but will alter its declaration method. The prime minister, chancellor, and deputy prime minister have since pledged not to accept any more donated clothing after the revelation that they had received work clothes worth thousands of pounds from donors, with Sir Keir Starmer originally declaring £16,000 of these clothes as money for his “private office” which will be recategorised. He also initially failed to declare thousands of pounds in clothes for his wife Victoria.
The donations have sparked questions about the connection between Lord Alli and Sir Keir but Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden has insisted that the Labour peer was not trying to influence government and there was “no policy quid pro quo” between them. He further stated that it was acceptable for the prime minister to accept free clothes since it was part of political campaigning. The current version of the MPs’ register covers gifts and hospitality received until early August, roughly covering Labour’s first month in power, but hospitality received by MPs after this date is yet to be published, with the next update scheduled later this month. The Labour government has not yet published its first list of ministers’ interests, with the first version of the document anticipated to be released later in 2022.
The government’s expansion of the rules on receiving freebies by ministers is intended to help restore public confidence in the transparency and probity of ministers, especially since the issue has raised concerns over the relationship between private donors and ministers from both sides of the political divide. The controversy is unlikely to fade quickly as there are calls for more stringent measures of fairness that would include extending the rules to senior civil servants as recipient of donations. Nonetheless, the move is a significant step that will enhance the level of open governance, which has been a feature of many modern democracies.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
