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Plaid Cymru MP tables motion to make it an offence for politicians to deliberately lie following No 10 party revelations

14 Jan 2022 3 minute read
Boris Johnson. Picture by Cancillería Argentina (CC BY 2.0). Liz Saville-Roberts. Picture by Plaid Cymru.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP, has tabled a parliamentary motion calling for a law to hold politicians to account for lying.

The Early Day Motion, which has so far gained the support of MPs from the Labour Party, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, the SDLP, Alliance, as well as Ms Saville Roberts’ Plaid Cymru colleagues, condemns the organisation of parties at Downing Street during lockdown and condemns the Tory Government for “lack of transparency” and a “reluctance to disclose attendance”.

Plaid Cymru, working with the think-tank Compassion in Politics, have proposed that a new law be introduced that would make it a criminal offence for politicians to deliberately lie to the public.

Speaking in light of fresh reports of two parties held in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, Ms Saville Roberts said that “when the lies are so blatant, the statements so hypocritical, and the pain and loss of Covid lockdowns still so visceral, the public are right to demand Boris Johnson be held to account.”

Liz Saville Roberts said: “Enough is enough. Boris Johnson’s lies have gone too far and Westminster is incapable of holding him to account. We urgently need a specific criminal offence to stop liars from corrupting our politics.

“The Prime Minister has been allowed to lie his way through life, making fools of us all in the process. But when the lies are so blatant, the statements so hypocritical, and the pain and loss of Covid lockdowns still so visceral, the public are right to demand Boris Johnson be held to account.

“Our proposal would bring the rules that already regulate business into politics. It would require that public statements made by politicians are, to the best of their knowledge, factual and accurate, and would create a new and independent mechanism through which to challenge and hold to account those suspected of lying.

“I urge MPs from across the House to join our calls for a debate on a law to stop the lies as soon as possible.”

‘No faith’

The push for the new law comes after Downing Sreet had to apologise to Buckingham Palace this morning for two staff parties in No 10 the night before Prince Philip’s funeral.

The gatherings, first reported by The Telegraph, took place on 16 April last year. The PM’s spokesman said it was “deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning”.

Matt Hawkins, Director of Compassion in Politics added that the revelations about parties in Downing St “point towards a real sickness at the heart of our politics”.

“For the sake of our democracy and the people it is meant to serve, we need urgent action to clean-up, reform, and substantially improve the standards, values, and ethics of our political system,” he said.

“That is why we are delighted to be working with Liz Saville Roberts and Plaid Cymru on this motion and on her efforts to secure a much-needed debate on reforming the rules of politics. We can’t have one system for our leaders and another for the rest of us.

“We can’t have faith in the decisions being made if we can’t trust the processes that led to them. I urge politicians to support this motion and to lead by example in creating a culture of respect, compassion, and honesty.”


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Gareth W
Gareth W
2 years ago

Boris Johnson may stand down but nothing will change. There will still be a totally unaccountable government (of whichever part is in power) and a basically corrupt system. Why can’t we just walk away from all of this and go our own way in Wales

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
2 years ago

It will be really interesting to see which politicians oppose this proposal. What a good proposal from Liz Saville Roberts, who is a fantastic MP. More like her please!

Ieuan Evans
Ieuan Evans
2 years ago

What exactly do you mean by “complaints culture is highly unpleasant, which is why the swamp in the Bay needs draining.”

Mike
Mike
2 years ago

It will be interesting to see whether any Conservative MP’s are willing to back this, or even the Prime Minister. It would offer one way for him the Tory party to attempt to regain some respect from a wholly disillusioned electorate. If at all possible.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

Hmmm? Fraudulent misrepresentation is already an offence which MPs in the House are protected against. I see no reason why they should be immune and the early day motion debate will explore the subject. There is no chance of parliament passing a specific “lies by politicians” law but it will be interesting to see who moves the debate.

Grayham Jones
2 years ago

Just get rid off all English party’s out of wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 it’s time for a new wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Leigh Richards
Leigh Richards
2 years ago

10 downing street has now replaced Ibiza as destination of choice for partygoers 😉

Welsh_Siôn
Welsh_Siôn
2 years ago
Reply to  Leigh Richards

Well … even before the latest, you will recall those darts fans with their placards and singing,

“All down to Boris’s later!”

Sue
Sue
2 years ago

The singular of Media is Medium. What happened to education??? Media is simply short for news etc media. You can ‘t have one media. There are already Welsh radio and television services and print media. What further are you asking for?

hdavies15
hdavies15
2 years ago

That’s a level of honesty and integrity for which most of the House of Commons is just utterly ill equipped. You would need a new force of enforcement officers who would be very busy indeed. Lying and warping the truth is habitual among a lot of these types. Apart from the shed full of dodgy Tories we now have a Labour M.P accepting 100’s of £1000’s from a Chinese lady who’s pedigree was suspect for years. No doubt she will have greased a few more M.P’s of all parties even lobbing a few £1000 to the utterly useless Ed Davey… Read more »

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