Government to overhaul rules on ministers declaring hospitality — Pat McFadden said a ‘Tory loophole’ will be closed to ensure more transparency
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2024/09/29/government-to-overhaul-rules-on-ministers-declaring-hospitality/
Posted by marketrent
7 Comments
Excerpts from [article](https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2024/09/29/government-to-overhaul-rules-on-ministers-declaring-hospitality/) by Christopher McKeon, PA news wire:
*The rules on ministers accepting hospitality will be overhauled to ensure they are more transparent about what is being provided, the Government has announced.*
*Senior Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden [told Laura Kuenssberg] the rules will be changed to bring them in line with what shadow ministers and backbench MPs must declare, as he described the current requirements as a “Tory loophole”.*
*Under the current arrangements, introduced by David Cameron in 2015, details of hospitality received by ministers in their ministerial capacity are published by departments.*
*But the information is released quarterly and does not include the value of the hospitality. MPs’ and shadow ministers’ interests must be declared within 28 days, are published fortnightly and include the cost of the hospitality.*
*[…] Government sources pointed to examples such as Dame Priti Patel accepting tickets to the premiere of a James Bond film from the Jamaica Tourist Board, but only including this in her ministerial declarations, claiming it was linked to her then role as home secretary.*
*The tickets were only revealed five months after she accepted them, and with no value attached.*
Too little, too late.
Free gear Kier is living proof that labour and the tories are two cheeks of the same arse.
This is deliberate obfuscation. The issue is not that the public have a problem with transparency of handouts. The issue is that the public feel that **there should be no handouts**.
They need a way to differentiate between Keir Starmer’s wife receiving tickets from Premier League clubs to Taylor Swift’s concerts and the Prime Minister receiving tickets to an Euros’ finals ticket with England playing, otherwise the declaration system will just be abused by both ministers and shadow ministers.
How do they still not understand that transparency isn’t the issue. In fact, the very reason for transparency is so the public can look at donations and scrutinise them, decide whether they seem like bribes for political favour.
And there are multiple donations that they have deemed bribes for political favour!
Oh it’s OK everyone, they’re only using Tory loopholes. So it’s actually all their fault again that Labour have been caught with their hands in the till.
Pat McFadden is involved in some morally questionable practices. Something along the lines of rented out his first house and bought the house next door with mortgage paid by taxpayer. A reporter quizzed him on it a few weeks ago on the news channels and his glib response was something like ‘It’s within the rules, I’ve done nothing wrong’.