The House Article | The government must now make ethics reform a top priority

4 min read1 hr

The government’s announcement on Monday that it will look at improving lobbying rules and transparency disclosures is welcome, while a proper mechanism to remove disgraced peers is long overdue. But voters need to see us delivering root and branch reform, and they need to see us delivering it at speed.

As a backbench Labour MP with a background in anti-corruption, I’m shocked at what we’ve seen this past week or so. But in some ways, I’m not surprised.  

The Epstein affair is particularly egregious, and my heart goes out to all the victims and their families beyond the Westminster bubble. But the anatomy of a political scandal in this country tends to be the same.

A scandal breaks. Westminster gasps. Our constituents are left thinking that politicians are in it for themselves and we’re all the same. Then nothing changes, and the next scandal comes along. 

The row surrounding Peter Mandelson is only the latest reminder that our ethics regime is still far too soft, far too porous, and far too reliant on politicians being ‘good chaps’.  

People are angry. In fact, many are losing faith entirely. 

It hardly matters, at this stage, what the eventual legal findings are. The damage is already done. And every time a scandal erupts, it reinforces the same toxic suspicion: that influence is for sale, that the powerful play by different rules, and that accountability is something reserved for everyone else. 

This is why ethics reform is not some fringe issue to be kicked into the long grass. It is central to restoring trust in government, and to defending the country against growing threats from foreign influence and dirty money, as underscored by the Reform UK politician Nathan Gill’s recent conviction for accepting bribes to make pro-Kremlin statements.  

The government deserves some credit for recognising this. The work already underway on the Hillsborough Law is a serious attempt to rebalance power between the state and the citizen. The decision to establish an Ethics and Integrity Commission is also the right direction of travel. These are not cosmetic changes. They are the beginnings of a much-needed clean-up. 

But now is the time to really grasp the nettle and show the country that this Labour government really is different from the venal Tory administrations which came before it.  

The danger is that ethics reform gets crowded out by all the other things we need to fix. But I’d argue it’s existential for us.  

The Mandelson affair has exposed gaps so wide you could drive an ornamental duck house through them. The House of Lords is a prime example. Ending hereditary peers and introducing a retirement age is welcome, but it does not fix the most glaring weakness: when a peer disgraces themselves, the system struggles to remove them. Too often, Parliament is left relying on voluntary resignation, as though public office were a private club. And let’s not forget that Mandelson can still go around calling himself a Lord, with all the social and potentially commercial advantages that come with it. 

That is not accountability. 

The same principle applies to appointments in the first place. The House of Lords Appointments Commission should be put on a statutory footing and given real power to block unsuitable nominations. A watchdog that can only bark is not protecting anyone. 

Then there is lobbying: the quiet engine room of political cynicism. Britain’s lobbying rules are so narrow they verge on parody. They cover consultant lobbyists but ignore the army of in-house operators, think tanks, corporate representatives, and front groups who shape policy behind closed doors. The result is predictable: scandal after scandal, each one feeding the sense that politics is stitched up. 

The answer is pretty simple. A full statutory register of all lobbyists. Monthly publication of departmental meetings, including what was discussed. And transparency rules that reflect reality, covering WhatsApp, emails, phone calls, and informal contact, not just tidy diary entries. 

And this is where the political dividing line must be drawn more sharply. 

There is a catalogue of Tory ethics scandals, peaking under Boris Johnson. Farage and his colleagues have been consistently disdainful of any sort of ethics regulation, and clearly have a Russia-shaped problem. My own party, as we’ve seen from the Mandelson affair, is not immune to this sickness infecting our politics.  

The government can’t afford another era where standards are optional, and scrutiny is dismissed as an inconvenience. Trust in politics is already hanging by a thread. 

The government has made a start. Now it must finish the job. 

Phil Brickell is Labour MP for Bolton West