Sunak. The spectre of ‘Old Corruption’ haunts the Tories
Rishi Sunak was investigated by the Standards Commissioner over an alleged failure to report an interest in a Budget measure in 2023.
The measure made it more attractive for parents to hire a childminder via an agency. Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty had links with one, Koru Kids, and might have potentially benefited from it.
Of course Sunak is the richest MP in the Commons and Murty’s wealth comes from her father not Koru Kids so any financial benefit would be to them, small change.
The investigation seems to have set a template for Sunak’s Government. In the last few weeks two Tory MPs William Wragg and Mark Menzies have lost the whip because of allegations of at best improper behaviour. Both are standing down at the next Election which is a sign that it will be in the next few months. There should be further investigations in what they had been up to, but nothing in recent Parliamentary experience suggests these will come to much. Sub-Postmasters could be forgiven for feeling very angry
18 MPs currently sit in the Commons as independents. A few are Labour, mainly political disagreements. The Tories have invariably been involved in doubtful activities, proven or unproven. One Andrew Bridgen has been permamently expelled from the Tory Party
The issue is one of transparency and probity so clearly also missing from the Governments of Johnson and Truss (and indeed as it turned out Cameron).
It harks back to the pre-1832 politics before the Great Reform Act when Government contracts and financial dealings and positions of authority were based not on merit and suitability but on who people were and who they knew. It was a politics of sinecures and favours. Hence on a very restricted franchise the activities of MPs received little scrutiny. Part of the effort to grapple with that was the publication of Hansard.
Labour should not have the same issue except its continuing pursuit of the idea of public-private partnerships and courting of lobbyists opens it up to the possibility of the same thing happening unless considerably enhanced scrutiny of such matters is put in place
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