Time to call time on lying with impunity in Parliament

About 10 years ago, in my first few months as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, I had to deliver the formal notice in the Chamber to suspend the late Paul Flynn MP from the House of Commons.   

This came as a great surprise as I wasn’t aware that expelling members came with the job and Paul Flynn was someone whose outspoken adoption of controversial issues, such as the legalisation of cannabis, made him stand out amongst the ranks of more timid backbenchers. His refusal to ‘pull punches’ meant he was liked by members on all sides of the House.  

Paul Flynn’s misdemeanour was accusing Philip Hammond, who was then the Defence Minister, of lying about troop movements in Afghanistan.

Neither John Bercow, the Speaker at that time, nor I would have had any idea whether what Paul Flynn was claiming was true or not.  In any case John Bercow had no choice under the Standing Orders of the House.  Honourable Members cannot be accused of lying (even when they are).  He insisted that Paul Flynn retract his words or face suspension.  Paul Flynn opted for the latter.

What has happened in recent months in the Commons is different. 

The Prime Minister has on a number of occasions in the Chamber repeated claims that have already been debunked.  This means that the present Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s concerns that ‘it is not the Speaker’s function to adjudicate on the accuracy of a particular answer in what can be fast moving proceedings’ don’t apply.

Take the claim that  "We now have 420,000 more people in employment than there were before the pandemic began."   The PM made this claim at Prime Minister’s Questions on 24 November, 5 January and 12 January.  There is only one problem.  It was not true.  And this was pointed out to the PM by Full Fact who fact-checked his assertion.  It is incorrect as the cited figures didn’t include people who were self-employed.  Employment had actually dropped by 600,000.  This false claim was also repeated by other Ministers in interviews.

It cannot be impossible for one of the longest standing democracies in the world to find a way of tackling such behaviour.

Unlock Democracy has made a case to both the Speaker and the Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, the Chair of the Procedure Committee: the Procedure Committee should investigate changes that would enable immediate action to be taken against any MP or Minister who repeats a claim which has already been proven to be false.   

This could have a sobering effect on wayward MPs as they are immediately forced to put the record straight and, in the cases where they have made a false defamatory accusation about another member, to apologise subsequently in the Chamber.

There is certainly a public appetite for action.  A few weeks ago, we carried out a survey of our supporters, over 2,000 of whom responded.  In this survey 97% of our supporters thought that the rules of the House of Commons should be changed so that there are consequences for MPs who deliberately mislead the House.

The ball is in the Procedure Committee’s court.

Tom Brake, Director, Unlock Democracy

Note - since this article was written, the Prime Minister has repeated his false claim on employment numbers yet again in Parliament.