Following its review into the MPs code of conduct, Parliament’s Standards Committee has proposed that MPs should be banned from paid consultancy roles, providing strategy services and offering paid parliamentary advice.
The debate around MPs having second jobs and what roles should be allowed has intensified in recent weeks, after former Tory MP Owen Paterson was adjudged to have broken lobbying rules in his work for two companies.
Earlier in October, MPs backed government proposals to come up with recommendations for preventing MPs taking on certain roles. These proposals were not supported by the Labour Party, who felt that their own plan to crack down on MPs’ second jobs was more robust.
Now, the Standards Committee has said that MPs taking on second jobs should seek guidance from the standards commissioner in advance and ensure that any contract makes clear that they cannot lobby ministers or public officials on behalf of their employer.
Other areas of the draft recommendations suggested MPs could be investigated for misconduct for carrying out “personal attacks” against others, and that any gifts and hospitality on the House of Commons register should be declared in addition to ministers’ interests.
Meanwhile, the committee has suggested that a “senior judicial figure” should be called upon to judge its processes. This came after some MPs were concerned about right to appeal the outcome of investigations following the Owen Paterson probe.
There will now be a consultation process before the final version of the changes to the code of conduct is put before MPs. It is expected that the Commons will debate and vote on the suggestions around mid-April.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has suggested that the code of conduct should be tightened further, saying restrictions should be placed upon former ministers preventing them from working in roles relating to their position for up to five years after leaving government.
Highlighting what she called incidents of "flagrant disregard" of the code of conduct under Boris Johnson's government, Rayner also called for a new entity to be formed to replace the independent adviser on ministerial interests, who cannot currently investigate possible breaches of the rules by ministers unless the prime minister instructs them to do so.
Rayner told the BBC: “We think it's really important that we clean up the system because only under this prime minister have we seen that the code's been so flagrantly disregarded, and we can't have this undermining of public standards.
“People have to have trust in ministers doing the job that they're there to do, and that's to protect the British electorate and protect our interests, not their own.”
In response, the Cabinet Office has said that the government is “committed” to “reinforcing high standards of conduct” in public office and will update Parliament “in due course” after considering the conclusions of the report.
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
