The quick sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a Minister and his suspension from the Labour party shows how alarmed the Prime Minister is by the dreadful comments he made. Oliver Ryan MP awaits the results of an enquiry into the wider WhatsApp group and his own membership. The government will hope there are not more of these social media outbursts bad mouthing constituents, pensioners, religious groups and the rest. Labour made much of the bad conduct of MPs in the last Parliament. All too many, Labour as well as Conservative, faced allegations of sexual or financial misconduct or unacceptable remarks in a long run of incidents.
It always surprised me when I was an MP what some other MPs got up to. If you are willing to get drunk in public, become a sex pest, fiddle your expenses or make abusive comments on social media the last thing you should do is become an MP. MPs are in the spotlight. People with mobiles can now record your every word and gesture from the moment you step out of your home. The public is rightly unforgiving that someone on a good salary enjoying the privileges of Parliamentary life should behave badly. Some MPs seemed to think they had some immunity, when they should have seen they are being watched far more than most.
MPs are in the spotlight and must be held to the highest standards.
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Aware of public anger about some MP s conduct in the last Parliament Sir Keir promised us things would be different under this Labour government. It is not turning out like that. We have had the freebie scandal. Why do people on good incomes need others to buy them clothes or tickets to events?
There are allegations the PM himself broke lockdown rules after all he said about others doing that. The Transport Secretary, a Treasury Minister and now a Health Minister have all resigned to deal with allegations about their past behaviour. A Labour MP has been found guilty of assault.
I tweeted the question why would someone who held negative views of people and did not want to help constituents stand for election? Much of the MP's job is sympathising with people's problems and trying to get them better treatment from government or the local Council. I was inundated with the same answer. Most said some go for the job because it pays £91,000 plus expenses with insufficient accountability over how the MP should behave and what he or she must do. Lots of people see it as a well paid cushy number.
This is a tough judgement on the many MPs who give up well paid highly qualified jobs to undertake this most difficult of tasks. On call seven days a week, needing to be highly motivated and self disciplined, conscious you are on display all the time, this is a way of life more than a job. You are an MP seven days a week all your waking hours. One mistake can end your tenure. You cant let your hairdown or go out to get drunk or settle scores.
If this behaviour continues, the public will lose faith in Parliament.
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The public is right to worry how many MPs do let Parliament down. They hire several staff to do much of their work, only turn up in Parliament two or three days a week 35 weeks a year and then say or do something inappropriate.
The present government is even less keen than the last one for backbench MPs to be at Westminster. I am told it is quite common for Mondays as well as Thursdays to be one line whip days, meaning the MP does not have to attend. The government did not seem to have prepared its draft legislation to push through the changes it promised in the first six months. It seems happy to hold debates with no votes that are poorly attended.
It is true that lawfare or ordeal by Regulator has become an ever more present feature of political life. Labour in opposition was remorseless in looking for possible MP infringements of rules and turning minor mistakes into big stories. It is also true that there do seem to be too many MPs who treat staff badly, enjoy freebies and say unpleasant or unacceptable things on social media that need exposing.
We will never elect a Parliament of saints. There will be MPs who make a mistake and are contrite. There will be MPs who are hounded and attacked for something they did not do, or for a twisted version of what they said.
There are also, unfortunately, MPs who say abusive things, treat staff badly and act to further their own interests at the expense of their constituents. Labour needs to get a grip on any in its ranks in danger of doing this before the new Parliament is written off by the public for being as bad or worse than the last.
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