Force ministers to reveal full details of free hospitality, ‘sleaze’ crackdown demands

Backlash after Boris Johnson did not have to fully declare a stay at Zac Goldsmith’s luxury villa

Ministers would no longer be able to keep secret the full details of free holidays and free tickets to major events, under a crackdown demanded by MPs.

Concern has been growing after Boris Johnson did not have to fully declare his stay at a luxury villa owned by Zac Goldsmith, while Priti Patel was late revealing her trip to a James Bond premiere.

Now the Commons standards committee wants “the ministerial exemption” – which allows hospitality to be declared separately from that enjoyed by other MPs – to be scrapped from the autumn.

However, the government is expected to resist the overhaul, having rejected the call last year when it argued it was “appropriate that there are different rules”.

The recommendation is among a package of measures to crack down on “sleaze” sparked in part by last year’s scandals that engulfed the Tory MPs Owen Paterson and Geoffrey Cox.

There should be ban on MPs acting as consultants, providing “paid parliamentary advice or strategy services” – as around 35, mainly Conservative MPs, have done – the Commons standards committee report says.

That is supported by the government, which also floated a ceiling on hours worked or earnings made before rejecting that as unworkable, a view shared by the committee.

Other recommendations, intended to be voted on in the Commons by July, include:

• Ban MPs from talking with ministers, or in debates, in a way that would benefit someone who has paid them – on top of the existing rule that they should not “initiate” approaches or debates.
• Require MPs to have a written contract for any outside work, making explicit the ban on lobbying ministers or public officials, or providing advice on influencing parliament.
• Make the Register of Members’ Interests more “transparent and searchable” – possibly updating it more frequently than every two weeks, as it is currently.
• Toughen the Seven Principles of Public Life to state that MPs should “exemplify anti-discriminatory attitudes in their own behaviour”.

The committee hopes the crackdown will cut the number of “freebies” accepted by ministers (once full declaration is required) and MPs (facing tougher restrictions on speaking in debates).

Last October, Mr Johnson stayed at the Spanish villa of Lord Goldsmith – his environment minister – but the stay was not declared on the Commons register within 28 days, as normally required.

Instead, the prime minister exploited the rule that allows hospitality “received in a member’s capacity as a minister” to be released by that minister’s department, without revealing the value of it.

The home secretary provoked ridicule when she claimed she attended the No Time To Die premiere last September because her job requires knowing about spies – declaring it only five months later.

There was also controversy when some of the approximately 20 MPs who accepted £900 hospitality at last year’s Brit Awards failed to register it, because they are ministers.

Chris Bryant, the committee’s chair, urged Mr Johnson not to reject any of the recommendations, warning “the public cares passionately about standards in parliament.

“Every generation of MPs holds membership of the house in trust for the next generation. It can either burnish the house’s reputation or tarnish it,” he said.