The Unprofessionals
Westminster is weak on standards. That needs to change, starting with the Tories.
The scandal surrounding Mark Menzies, MP for Fylde, is extraordinary. Though it must be noted that he denies the allegations, both the scale and the narrative of his purported indiscretions are truly shocking. It reads like a low-budget thriller, with late-night rendezvous, emergency phone calls and embezzlement. Even after so many scandals, it is perhaps grimly impressive that our politicians can surprise us. However, beyond the excitement of the breaking news, this debacle again shows the endemic cultural problem in our parliament and how our parties have failed to address it.
The last five years have seen an almost unparalleled level of parliamentary misconduct. Since 2019, there have been eleven by-elections triggered in the wake of an MP’s misdeeds. Right now, a further 16 MPs sit as independents after having the whip withdrawn for misconduct (rather than political reasons). The depth and frequency of these scandals point to a cultural problem that would be of glaring concern in any other industry, but which MPs and parties seem all too relaxed about.
Across parliament and the parties, there is a failure to take these issues as seriously as they demand. Instead of being seen as ethical, moral, or even safety issues, the indiscretions of MPs are still viewed largely as a political problem to be managed. Political parties are slow to investigate and often reluctant to punish MPs or change systems in a way that truly discourages wrongdoing. This might suit them in the short term but hollows out broader confidence in the system. For the Tories, who seem to have the greater share of these mishaps, it is becoming particularly damaging.
At the heart of this lies the divergence between parliamentary and other professional cultures. While the corporate world is by no means perfect, its approach to wrongdoing has come on strides in recent decades. Regulators are powerful and proactive, and companies take their legal and disciplinary duties seriously. In most places now the idea of being “too powerful to face consequences” has died. So too have grindingly slow investigations or an automatic assumption that an in-house whitewash is the best way forward. That is not true in the Conservative Party.
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