The chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has launched a full-frontal attack on the government’s decision to tear up the independent system for combating sleaze in parliament, describing it as “a very serious and damaging moment for parliament and public standards in this country”. Jonathan Evans, a crossbench peer and former director general of the Security Service, said on Thursday that the vote in parliament to replace the system of scrutiny with a new committee led by a Tory MP and with a Tory majority was an “extraordinary proposal … deeply at odds with the best traditions of British democracy” and described it as “as an attack on standards”.
“The political system in this country does not belong to one party or even to one government,” he said. “It is a common good that we have all inherited from our forebears and that we all have a responsibility to preserve and to improve.” He was speaking at the same time as the government announced in parliament that it was reversing its proposal and would ditch immediate plans to overhaul the standards system. Lord Evans also accused the government of failing to uphold the principles of public life, espoused by governments over 25 years, that include the requirement for ministers and MPs to show leadership in upholding ethical standards in public life. “I find it hard to see how yesterday’s actions in any way meet that test,” said Evans in a speech to the Institute for Government conference on ethical standards in government. He said: “We could slip into being a corrupt country and that’s why we need to be vigilant around these issues. It is also quite possible that we could slip in terms of international perceptions of us.” Conservative MPs were whipped to vote for the new system after Owen Paterson was found to have repeatedly breached lobbying rules by the independent parliamentary commissioner for standards after he was paid by two companies, Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods, which employed him as a consultant. The breaches were considered “egregious” by the commissioner, who is employed by parliament rather than the government. She ordered him to complete a 30-day suspension from parliament. Evans’ unequivocal comments will fuel the growing backlash against Downing Street’s strategy, which was described as a “complete and utter sham” by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
“Their plan is to permanently weaken the structures that hold MPs to high standards,” Starmer wrote in the Guardian. “They’ve appointed their own man to oversee the process – a Tory MP who not long ago was the prime minister’s wife’s boss – and gifted themselves a majority on a committee to set the new rules. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.” Evans has chaired the Committee on Standards in Public Life since October 2018. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Cabinet Office that advises the prime minister on arrangements for upholding ethical standards of conduct across public life in England, but is not a regulator and does not investigate individual complaints. Evans told the conference: “It cannot be right that MPs should reject after one short debate the conclusions of the independent commissioner for standards and the House of Commons committee on standards – conclusions that arose from an investigation lasting two years. “It cannot be right to propose an overhaul of the entire regulatory system in order to postpone or prevent sanctions in a very serious case of paid lobbying by an MP. It cannot be right that this was accompanied by repeated attempts to question the integrity of the commissioner of standards herself who is working within the system the House of Commons agreed in 2010. “And it cannot be right to propose that the standards system of the House of Commons should be reviewed by a select committee chaired by a member of the ruling party and with the majority of members from that same party.” He concluded: “This extraordinary proposal is deeply at odds with the best traditions of British democracy. The political system in this country does not belong to one party or even to one government. It is a common good that we have all inherited from our forebears and that we all have a responsibility to preserve and to improve.” On Monday, Evans’ committee published an annual report that said: “Transparency around lobbying is poor and requires better coordination and more frequent publication by the Cabinet Office.” It called for a “programme of reform to restore public confidence in the regulation of ethical standards in government” and urged greater independence in the regulation of the ministerial code, which Evans said lagged behind arrangements for MPs, peers and civil servants. He also called for reforms to the powers of the commissioner for public appointments, who oversees the recruitment of chairs to major public bodies such as the BBC and Ofcom, to provide a better guarantee of the independence of assessment panels.