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Holding Power to Account: Parliament Must Be Allowed to Do Its Job
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The Prime Minister is the last person to realise the game is up.
After years of sleaze and scandal under the Conservatives, Keir Starmer was to deliver a fresh political culture based upon integrity, honesty, and accountability. Less than two years into power, constituents across Newbury and West Berkshire are once again watching Westminster infighting play out.
It’s depressing and we can’t let it go on.
So, in Parliament, I probed the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on exactly this. With MPs debating and voting today on whether to refer the prime minister to the privileges committee over claims he misled parliament over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, I asked a straightforward question: would the Government allow Parliament to do its job, or block scrutiny?
Labour MPs must put principle before party and vote to refer Keir Starmer to the privileges committee. The public rightly expect better from this Labour government, not a return to the same old instinct to cover things up.
After frantic government whipping, many Labour MPs will fall in line and the PM will survive, for now.
But this scandal has undermined trust, and crucially, rather than remaining laser-focused on providing immediate relief for hard-working families suffering from an economy-wrecking war, and setting in place the long-term structural reform that our sluggish economy needs, the government has once again descended into recrimination and infighting.
Constituents across Newbury and West Berkshire need a prime minister focused on the things that matter to them – NHS and cost of living – not his own political survival.
As this sorry saga rumbles on, I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues will continue to stand for transparency and hold the powerful to account.
