July 20th 2023.
Two years ago, I made headlines after being kicked out of the House of Commons for calling out the many lies of then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Now, I am once again trying to draw attention to the untruths being told by the Conservative Government. It seems that lying is their hallmark, and it is time for them to no longer get away with it.
On this particular occasion, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden had made a bold statement on the House floor, claiming that the Labour Party’s plan to invest £28billion a year in green energy would add £1,000 a year ‘to everyone’s mortgage’. However, this figure had not been backed up by the Treasury, and the UK’s statistics watchdog had challenged him on it.
It is the responsibility of ministers to give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, and so I raised a Point of Order to get him to come back to the House and correct the record. Unfortunately, he refused my request. I then had to write to the Prime Minister, asking three clear questions - where did the Deputy PM get the figure from, would he instruct Dowden to return to the House to correct the record, and if he refused, would he initiate an official investigation into whether he had breached the ministerial code.
I wasn’t surprised when I received a response from the Deputy Prime Minister himself, in which he tried to justify his statement by using a theoretical interest rate rise. His response was full of assumptions and politically motivated predictions - which is why the Speaker stated that the rules must be looked at again, so that ministers can ensure the facts are heard.
My Early Day Motion 1345 would take the ministerial code out of the hands of the partisan Prime Minister and put it under the remit of the whole House of Commons. This way, fair and necessary standards would be applied no matter who is in government.
What this episode has shown us is that the system must change. The Tories are destroying our democracy and I feel it is my duty to speak truth to power. The Prime Minister promised integrity, professionalism and accountability, but this government has delivered the exact opposite. It is time for a change.
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