In Labour’s election manifesto the top policy for the section titled “Serving the Country” was “A new Ethics and Integrity Commission.” Finally a break for Laurie Magnus…
“Labour will restore confidence in government and ensure ministers are held to the highest standards. We will establish a new independent Ethics and Integrity Commission, with its own independent Chair, to ensure probity in government.”
Angela Rayner had been hankering for a new standards body since 2021 – the party briefed that it would replace Acoba. Once Labour got in Pat McFadden said in the Commons: “This was an important manifesto commitment. We will establish a new independent ethics and integrity commission, with its own independent chair, to ensure the highest possible standards. Work has begun on that.“ Doesn’t look like it nine months later…
Guido fired an FoI to the Cabinet Office to ask what the terms of reference for the new Commission were, how many staff made it up, and how many times it had met with ministers since 5 July. All of which comes back with ‘no record’…
Acoba continues unabated. After some months of sleaze and scandal it looks like there is no rush to set up an independent body to scrutinise the probity of Labour ministers. Wonder why…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”