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Angela Rayner has come under fire for allegedly avoiding capital gain tax on the sale of a house in 2015. This comes in the wake of the recent outrage about conduct scandals involving William Wragg MP and Baroness Mone. Public officials are held to high standards of conduct, which they are expected to follow due to the significance of their role to represent the people. Recent events have shown the important duty of all citizens to scrutinise public officials.
The Bad, the Worse, and the Ugly
Recent events remind us of the importance of a vigilant citizen body that is willing to scrutinise MPs. Officials on both sides of the political aisle have been embroiled in scandals for as long as politics has been conducted. However, several recent developments have renewed public scrutiny of officials’ conduct.
William Wragg, a senior Conservative MP, shared revealing images of himself on the dating app Grindr. These images were then used as blackmail material to force Wragg to share personal contact details of other MPs, some of whom he had never met.
Michelle Mone, Scottish businesswoman and peer in the House of Lords, faces allegations of bribery and fraud relating to personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mone, who has supported both the Labour and Conservative parties, is alleged to have profited from government contracts granted to a company she owned.
Holding politicians to high standards is necessary to make sure the right people hold power.
Mone recommended the company to the government’s emergency VIP scheme, allowing companies to bypass usual competitive tendering procedures, but did not declare her involvement with the company in the Lords register of interests.
In December 2022, The Guardian reported that ‘Mone, [her husband, Douglas] Barrowman, PPE Medpro and three other intermediary companies in the supply chain appear to have made in excess of £100m in profits from government contracts worth £203m’.
Angela Rayner has also come under renewed scrutiny about the amount of tax she paid on the sale of a house in 2015. Rayner, who is shadow deputy prime minister and would be the second most powerful politician in Britain should Labour win the next election, claims the house was her principal residence at the time of the sale, meaning it was exempt from council tax. This is despite the fact that her husband, children, and pets lived at another property at the time.
High Standards, High Rewards
MPs are our elected representatives. It is through them that the opinions and needs of the British people are represented in parliament, the supreme decision-making body in the United Kingdom. MPs can make, break, and alter the laws we all have to follow. MPs can be appointed as government ministers, who are responsible for running the country.
Holders of public office in the UK are expected to follow seven key principles known as the Nolan Principles. These values are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership. These values are broad and idealistic, saying little about the daily activity of our elected representatives. They set a general requirement that MPs, peers, and other officials are to be upstanding citizens who act honestly and are accessible and answerable to the people.
Politicians will only be ‘good’ when voters force liars and rulebreakers out of office, and reward those with honesty and integrity with support.
Our public officials are well aware of the Nolan Principles. It is inexcusable when they violate them. Holding politicians to high standards is necessary to make sure the right people hold power. By doing so, those who break the rules are forced out of politics while those who follow the rules and act faithfully rise to high office. This system does not work perfectly, but it can be highly effective when quality journalists and vigilant citizens fulfil their duty
Good politicians make good laws. Good laws make our country competitive by striking the balance between doing what is right, protecting the vulnerable, and allowing the freedom required to facilitate innovation. Politicians will only be ‘good’ when voters force liars and rulebreakers out of office, and reward those with honesty and integrity with support.
Your Country Needs You to be Vigilant
Scrutiny of the conduct of our elected representatives is of the utmost importance. It should not be a part-political issue. Whatever end of the political spectrum you most identify with, officials breaking financial rules is unacceptable. It is also indefensible to leak confidential information about fellow MPs to strangers on the internet, which poses a severe threat to national security.
There is nothing more that rule-breaking MPs want than an electorate that is unable to properly scrutinise their behaviour because they are divided along party lines. When voters are distracted by allegiance to a particular party, they risk turning a blind eye to the inappropriate or illegal actions of the politicians on their side.
Our human rights protect us from abuses by the government. But with this comes the civic duty to defend those rights. This means we have to be vigilant whenever officials break the rules – any rules, no matter their party allegiance.
MPs will turn anything they can into a weapon they can use against their opponents. It is an unfortunate reality that they will always take the opportunity to score points when officials on the opposite side break the rules.
As citizens of a democratic country, it is our responsibility to put aside party-politics when it comes to our officials’ finances. No Member of Parliament or Peer should be spared severe scrutiny when it comes to their conduct.
Our human rights protect us from abuses by the government. But with this comes the civic duty to defend those rights. This means we have to be vigilant whenever officials break the rules – any rules, no matter their party allegiance. Holding officials to impeccably high standards is the best way to preserve liberty and protect human rights. There are dire consequences for allowing politicians to break the rules, but these can be avoided by scrutinising public officials. Doing so enables the possibility for our country to be well-governed, innovative, and free.
Sources:
- Barker-Singh, Serena, ‘Fresh headache for Labour as questions grow over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs’, Sky News, (7 April 2024), <https://news.sky.com/story/fresh-headache-for-labour-as-questions-grow-over-angela-rayners-tax-affairs-13109859> [accessed: 07/04/2024].
- Brown, Faye, ‘Who is William Wragg? The Tory MP at centre of ‘sexting scam’ scandal’, Sky News, (5 April 2014), <https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-william-wragg-the-tory-mp-at-centre-of-sexting-scam-scandal-13108497> [accessed: 07/04/2024].
- Committee on Standards in Public Life, ‘Guidance: The Seven Principles of Public Life’, GOV.UK, (31 May 1995), <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life–2> [accessed: 07/04/2024].
- Conn, David, and Paul Lewis, ‘Revealed: the full inside story of the Michelle Mone PPE scandal’, The Guardian, (9 December 2022), <https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/09/revealed-the-full-inside-story-of-the-michelle-mone-ppe-scandal> [accessed: 07/04/2024].
- Davies, Caroline, and David Conn, ‘How the Michelle Mone scandal unfolded: £200m of PPE contracts, denials and a government lawsuit’, The Guardian, (17 December 2023),<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/17/how-the-michelle-mone-scandal-unfolded-200m-of-ppe-contracts-denials-and-a-government-lawsuit> [accessed: 07/04/2024].
- Glackin, Michael, ‘Lingerie boss drops her support for Labour’, The Sunday Times, (25 April 2009), <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lingerie-boss-drops-her-support-for-labour-sb37305smpz> [accessed: 07/04/2024].