Something shameful is happening in the House of Lords, and almost nobody is watching. In July I promised to take this fight to the Lords. The Hillsborough Law will put nurses, teachers, police officers, soldiers, civil servants and ministers under a legal duty of candour, and make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in prison, to intentionally or recklessly mislead the public. Backbench MPs and peers will be bound by neither. The Bill lists “either House of Parliament” as an “excluded body”. The spies fought for an exemption and lost. The lawmakers are trying for one as well and they’re winning.
Warnings of hypocrisy
They were warned. In February, former Labour minister Lord Knight told peers: “The British public are remarkably forgiving of error; they are far less forgiving of hypocrisy.” Conservative Lord Young of Acton disagrees: “Rather than extend the scope of the Bill to include MPs and Peers, let us limit it to make sure that Members of both Houses, in whatever capacity, are properly excluded.”
On Monday, peers finally debated an amendment to include every UK legislator. Liberal Democrat Baroness Bowles put it plainly: “if you deliberately mislead then you should face the same consequences as everybody else.” Minister Lord Lemos replied that it was “not appropriate to extend the offence to Back-Bench parliamentarians”, and answered as if the amendment threatened parliamentary privilege. It did not. It excluded anything said or done in proceedings in Parliament, covering only what politicians tell you outside: on television, at events and online.
Scope of the amendment
My rewritten amendment covers legislators only for deliberate or reckless deception over war, referendums, disasters, public safety and serious wrongdoing. A sitting MP or peer could only be fined. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is reopening the EU question. If there is another referendum, ministers will be bound by this law. Every other MP and peer will be free to deceive you. I spent years trying to hold Boris Johnson to account for his false claims about the “£20 Billion” we send to the EU each year. Under this Bill, a backbench MP could do the same with impunity.
Imagine the day this becomes law. A nurse who deceives the public could face prison. The peer who voted for it could not. If peers will not listen, I will go over their heads, to you. Backed by more than 19,000 members of the public, I will bring the amendment back at Report stage, where peers can be made to vote. If you believe lawmakers should obey their own laws, write to your MP and the House of Lords, and copy in journalists.
First the spies. Now the MPs. The Hillsborough Law must apply to the people making it, and I will not stop until it does.
