Thank you for contacting me about your support for changing the culture of Westminster politics.

From my experience, the actions of Braverman and Johnson are far from isolated. We have seen time and again how this Tory party appears to have no respect for the rules and believes themselves exempt from consequence.

This was recently highlighted by the resignation of Boris Johnson. The privileges committee have now published their findings and rightly they have been totally damming. Once again Boris Johnson has run from his responsibilities and will do everything possible to avoid the consequences of his actions. His constituents have been abandoned without an elected representative, as he cowardly resigns out of pure self interest.

While I am incredibly relieved that our democratic institutions will no longer be tainted by Boris’s toxic conduct. Over the last few years, I have been horrified by the amount of misinformation and in some cases barefaced lies I have seen presented as fact in Parliament.

Rishi Sunak can try his best to distance himself from any responsibility, but time and again he stood with the previous Prime Minister through the law-breaking and the lies. Let us not forget that Sunak also received a fine and he could have rejected his honours list, but he refused to.

There has never been a starker comparison of the character of our parties and leaders.

Therefore, I strongly agree with you that politicians need to play by the same rules as everyone else. I note too that the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life has argued that the Ministerial Code requires “significant reform”.

The Labour Party has proposed a number of changes to the current system. These include, but are not limited to, the creation of an independent Integrity and Ethics Commission with the power to investigate MPs and ministers accused of breaking the rules, a ban on Ministers lobbying for five years after they leave office, and an end to serving MPs holding paid directorships and consultancies. 

In my view, the current system, where oversight of these issues is spread across a range of bodies, is not robust enough. That is why I support strengthening the rules to ensure they are properly enforced.

I know that the Government has indicated that it is open to, in its words, “looking to identify solutions that command cross-party support on outstanding issues, including to improve the transparency and timeliness of ministerial declarations”.

However, that undertaking was made in November 2022, and since then no steps have been taken. Indeed, an audit, earlier this year, by the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption revealed that, 18 months after the Committee on Standards in Public Life report was published, just 7% of the recommendations have been implemented. In my view the Government is doing for too little to tackle this situation and are instead happy to continually abuse their positions of influence.