In response to Beth Rigby’s tweet above, John said:
This won’t solve the Government’s integrity problems I’m afraid, for several reasons:
1. It isn’t leadership. Starmer isn’t requiring other Ministers to follow his example or change what they’re doing.
2. It doesn’t solve possible conflicts of interest. If a freebie means Ministers owe the donor a favour, it doesn’t matter if it happened 6 weeks before the election or 6 weeks afterwards.
3. It doesn’t address double standards. Taking money from pensioners while your Ministers are living high on the hog isn’t the ‘Government of service’ which Starmer promised. It just looks like they’re in it for themselves.
It looks like a lawyer’s response of obeying rules, rather than a political leader who understands why people are upset. So what should they do differently? Here are some initial steps that would help:
1. Appoint my successor as anti-corruption tsar. The role has been empty for 2 years & they need someone to stop them thinking like lawyers rather than elected leaders. They could do worse than appointing Hilary Benn, who did the role in the last Labour Government & is in Cabinet now.
2. Get cracking with the new Anti-Corruption Strategy, to show they have a clear plan to improve standards. It’s been written & ready for months, so even if they want to update or strengthen it, they could get it out fast….
3. Confirm the tighter rules on conflicts of interest (eg legally-binding rules on what jobs Ministers can take when they leave office) announced by the last Government but not yet introduced.
4. Back a new International Anti-Corruption Court so oligarchs can’t hide dirty £££ beyond the law. These won’t solve everything. But they’d show the new Government is serious about improving standards & put them on the front foot with the issue after a bad start.
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