Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament

ABSTRACT

Healthy democracies require ethical leadership and respect for rules, but since the 2000s we have witnessed serious attacks on standards in the UK Parliament. Two narratives about scandals will reveal cultural and social aspects that are often ignored by the public, journalists and parliamentary scholars. A slow development of conditions led to a scandal over misuse of expenses in 2009, while rule-breaking in Parliament during Prime Minister Johnson’s term in office emerged more suddenly, in part out of the rupture of Brexit. Making sense of these cases about standards, and the connections between them, requires a theoretical approach that goes beyond looking at the bad behaviour of individuals or rotten cultures within a malfunctioning system. In the gap between the two, you find relationships. I make an argument for a relational, cultural and historical approach within which people act in complex configurations of interdependence as both individuals and socialised actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Standards
• UK Parliament
• expenses
• rule-breaking
• political anthropology

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editors of this special issue, Mark Bevir and Matt Beech, as well as Tobit Emmens, Telma Hoyler, and Lynne Wardle for their thought-provoking comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/06/boris-johnson-wins-no-confidence-vote-despite-unexpectedly-large-rebellion, 18 August 2022.

2 Retrieved 22 June 2023. https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3df2f5d0-f842-4ad5-bbb4-1706499f1e1f.

3 Retrieved 28 April 2022. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/boris-johnson-broke-rules-no-punishment/.

4 Retrieved 18 August 2022. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/politics/council/disgraced-mp-imran-ahmad-khan-was-one-bad-apple-says-wakefield-candidate-calling-on-voters-to-trust-the-tories-3734971.

5 Boris Johnson MP, HC Debates, 1 December 2021, vol. 704, col. 908.

6 Retrieved 23 April 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/11/seven-occasions-when-boris-johnson-denied-no-10-broke-covid-rules.

7 Boris Johnson MP, HC Debates, 19 April 2022, vol. 712, col. 48.

8 Ibid, col. 51.

9 Ros Atkins, Retrieved 23 April 2022. https://twitter.com/bbcrosatkins/status/1517384162533158940?s=27&t=lI6S5xpYpyaygxK3FzRs-w.

10 Peter Hennessy, Retrieved 26 April 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61134002; Daniel Finkelstein, Retrieved 26 April 2022. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-we-can-fix-our-constitutional-crisis-2f5s2r95t.

11 William Wragg MP, HC Debates, vol. 712, col. 364.

12 Steve Baker MP, HC Debates, vol. 712. col. 376.

13 Retrieved 29 April 2022. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/partygate-scandal-what-timeline-downing-street-lockdown-parties-boris-johnson-fined-1571226.

14 For example, Retrieved 29 April 2022. https://dominiccummings.substack.com/p/parties-photos-trolleys-variants?s=r.

15 Retrieved 29 April 2022. Dominic Cummings, Tweet, 27 April 2022, 12:37.

16 Retrieved 28 April 2022. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/boris-johnson-broke-rules-no-punishment/.

17 Retrieved 11 June 2023. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/boris-johnsons-resignations-honours.

18 https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/02/22/public-opinion-boris-johnsons-competence-and-trust, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-liar-poll-b2060046.html, https://www.indy100.com/news/boris-johnson-liar-poll-word, 28 April 2022.

19 Liz Saville Roberts, Retrieved 27 April 2022. https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/its-high-time-we-make-wilful-lying-by-politicians-a-criminal-offence.

20 Retrieved 29 April 2022. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/981939/Boardman_Review_of_Government_COVID-19_Procurement_final_report.pdf.

21 Retrieved 22 March 2023. https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/24310819-649e-4cab-b212-97f0ba549535.

22 Retrieved 23 March 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-59966249.

Additional information

Funding

Emma Crewe’s contribution to this article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 834986).

Notes on contributors

Emma Crewe

Emma Crewe is a Professor of Social Anthropology, Director of the Global Research Network on Parliaments and People, in the Department of Anthropology at SOAS, University of London, a Visiting Professor at the Business School at the University of Hertfordshire, and Deputy Chair of the Study of Parliament Group, UK.