Adviser on Ministerial Interests — 21 Jun 2022 at 18:38

“sends a critical signal into the public domain.”

“as you look through the calendar, a great deal of the year has potentially had the Prime Minister in scope.”

“the most substantial strengthening of the role, office and remit of independent adviser since the post was created in 2006.”-[Official Report, 16 June 2022; Vol. 716, c. 429.]

“Ministers are subject to…guidelines and requirements laid down by successive Prime Ministers in the Ministerial Code”.

“are not enforced by the House of Commons”.

“the Adviser may advise the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the appropriate use of its powers to send for persons, papers and records”.

“widely publicised openness to this”.

“an impossible and odious position”

“party to advising on any potential law-breaking”

“As I have heard other people say recently, good behaviour is a very difficult thing to legislate for. I join those who suggest that it really needs leaders-of course, the Prime Minister, Parliament and civil servants-to set the necessary example. I hope very much that the work that I do in this role, which is described as “adviser”, will be in the service of advising the office of Prime Minister in the furtherance of that behaviour, taking the Ministerial Code as its point of reference. I agree with you that rules are absolutely not sufficient to stimulate good behaviour.”

“we do have a recent leak with regard to the legal advice on the Northern Ireland protocol”,

“It may well do. You will recall that my new powers are squeaky new and I have not either been asked to or, indeed, pressed my own interest in giving advice in that example.”

“has not asked you to investigate why that legal advice was leaked”.

“But your new powers do allow you to ask”

“I think that my new powers would allow me, unrestricted, to ask questions of the entirety of Government and others.”

“You raised the issue of the leak”-

“The leak is clearly very serious… I would suggest it breaches the ministerial code, point 2.13. Would you agree?”

“I have not formed any advice and I have not brought an inquiry to bear on the situation.”

“Again, I would want to ensure that I could consider that fully before reaching a determination. By the way, as you know, the determination is then only advice to the Prime Minister.”

“Have you looked at reaching a determination before?”

“When the Prime Minister is asking his own adviser to advise on the Prime Minister’s conduct it really doesn’t work.”

“It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies”.

“ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”.

“If gay marriage was OK…I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”

“It is plainly unsatisfactory that my earlier advice was unable to rely on the fullest possible disclosure of relevant information.”

“this episode demonstrated insufficient regard or respect for the role of Independent Adviser.”

“I very much value your work as my Independent Adviser. The role is critical for the effective government of this country.”

“It may be especially difficult to inspire that trust in the Ministerial Code if any Prime Minister, whose code it is, declines to refer to it. In the case of the Fixed Penalty Notice recently issued to and paid by the Prime Minister, a legitimate question has arisen as to whether those facts alone might have constituted a breach of the overarching duty within the Ministerial Code of complying with the law.”

“would be to suspend the provisions of the code to suit a political end”

“act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can… will that it become a universal law.”

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

“confidence in the process has been severely damaged. If the prime minister does not intend to replace Lord Geidt, then he must immediately put in place measures to ensure a civil servant can, with confidence, raise a complaint about ministerial misconduct.”

Debate in Parliament |