Labour Deputy leader and Greater Manchester MP Angela Rayner has pledged that her party will “clean up politics”
In a speech at the Institute for Government, she outlined how the party would go about setting up the new commission, which would replace both the advisory committee on business appointments (ACOBA) and the independent adviser on ministers’ interests.
The new Ethics and Integrity Commission would have the power to recommend fines for ministers who break appointment rules when they leave office and that a Labour government would consult on the level of those fines so it has “teeth” to punish bad behaviour
Rayner attacked the “theory of good chaps” in the context of successive cases of Tory sleaze, singling out Boris Johnson but also laying considerable blame at Rishi Sunak’s door, declaring that the “rot starts at the top”.
She told attendees: “Never again will a Prime Minister and ministers be able to break the rules with impunity because the rules are too weak.”
