Ministerial Appointments: Vetting and Managing Conflicts of Interest Debate
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Lindsay Hoyle
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Ministerial Appointments: Vetting and Managing Conflicts of Interest
Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Before we come to the urgent question, I remind right hon. and hon. Members that, while it is perfectly in order to ask questions about the vetting arrangements for Ministers and the processes in place for managing conflicts of interest, this is not a substantive motion about the conduct of any Member. It is therefore not in order to make personal criticism of any right hon. or hon. Member.
Jeremy Quin
I thank my hon. Friend for what he said. He is absolutely right. For people being called into government, there is a proper process and there is a requirement for full disclosure. For that process to continue to be meaningful and to work for decades into the future, we need to retain confidentiality. That has to be part of it and the right way forward when an issue has been raised is for the independent adviser to look into it, as he is doing.
John Nicolson (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)
Here is what we know about the appointment of the BBC chair. The BBC chair Richard Sharp helped to arrange a £600,000 loan for the right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), weeks before he was chosen by the former Prime Minister to become BBC chair. Mr Sharp appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, on which I sit. We grilled him about his £400,000 gift to the Conservative party. However, he did not disclose his role in getting the man appointing him a huge loan. Mr Sharp, the former Prime Minister and the cousin offering the loan dined together at Chequers pre-loan and pre-appointment—and the former Prime Minister’s spokesperson says, “So what? Big deal.”
The Cabinet Office ethics team told the former Prime Minister to stop talking to Mr Sharp about his finances. Ministers told other applicants not to waste their time applying; the appointment was to go to the friend of the right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the Tory donor. Even by the grubby standards of this Government, it is all a bit banana republic, is it not?