ETHICS are not a priority for the Government, Labour have said, highlighting Rishi Sunak's broken promise to appoint a propriety adviser.
The Government must reveal its plans to fill the vacant post of independent ethics adviser as Rishi Sunak promised to do as soon as he came to office, the party's deputy leader Angela Rayner said.
She pressed the Government to appoint a new watchdog for ministerial interests, a job which has been left vacant since the resignation of Lord Geidt in June.
Rishi Sunak had promised to fill the post as soon as he came to office while campaigning for the Conservative leadership as a means of restoring trust in Westminster politics following the scandals of Boris Johnson’s premiership.
In the Commons, Rayner reminded MPs of this commitment as she pressed the Government to say when a new adviser would be appointed, telling MPs: “How many times have I heard ‘soon, jam tomorrow, manana, manana?’
“We need the Prime Minister who promised to appoint an independent ethics adviser as one of his first acts to actually deal with this issue. Yet despite ministers accused of bullying and intimidation or reappointed despite security breaches, still no adviser.
“It is clear that ethics and integrity isn’t a priority for them despite the Prime Minister’s words and we are told that recruitment is under way, but apparently no-one will accept this poisoned chalice.
“Can he tell us today how many candidates have been approached and how many have refused the job?
“Will the Prime Minister follow his disgraced predecessors by denying the so-called independent adviser the power to launch their own investigations?
“Or does the Prime Minister have no plan to restore standards and will just preserve the rotten regime that he inherited?”
Responding to Rayner, Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said: “She refers to rumours in the press but let us look at the facts – the Prime Minister has been in office for 31 days.
“On his first day he said he would make an appointment, he has made repeated assurances in this place and in other places as have members of the Cabinet.”
He added: “She talks about the powers of the independent adviser but I remind her that in May this year Lord Geidt said that we had come up with a workable scheme.
“I have to say that it is starting to sound very much like the opposition cannot take yes for an answer. We are going to have an independent adviser, they are going to have the powers they need, and they are going to be appointed very soon.”
He had earlier told MPs: “As soon as there is an update on the process to appoint an independent adviser on ministers’ interests, the Government will update the House.”
In the absence of a permanent ethics adviser, the Government has appointed senior employment lawyer Adam Tolley KC to look into the claims made against Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab after two formal complaints were submitted about his conduct.
Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine said the delay in appointing a permanent watchdog “further undermines and corrodes” Parliament’s reputation in the public mind.
The LibDem said: “We’ve waited for five months now for an ethics adviser … every time the Government fails to appoint one, it further undermines and corrodes this place’s reputation in the public mind.
“I have tabled a bill which would give Parliament the power to appoint an ethics adviser if the Government failed. So given the Government’s inability to appoint an ethics adviser would you now please support that bill and allow us to get on with re-establishing the good reputation of this place?”
Burghart replied: “There is a process going on at speed.”
