Prime Minister's letter to avoid being accused of not declaring his interests (like last time)
The Prime Minister attempted to avoid the risk of being accused of not declaring his interests during his latest committee appearance by writing a caveat to the Chair.
In a letter addressed to Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, who was chairing the Liaison Committee on Monday, Rishi Sunak said that it “may not always be possible” for him to declare his interests during the meeting.
He wrote that he would be “unable to anticipate all areas of questioning” and therefore said, “it may not always be possible for me to declare during the meeting an interest that later, on reflection, appears to me to satisfy the relevance test.”
Instead, he said “should the contingency arise, I shall write to the Committee as soon as reasonably possible after my appearance and declare any interest that I consider meets that test.”
Sunak added that this approach had been discussed previously with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests, which he said were ‘satisfied’ with it.
The House of Commons held the session yesterday, which usually occurs three times a year when members can question the Prime Minister on government policy. The Times Chief Political Correspondent, Aubrey Allegretti, posted the letter on X, signed by Rishi Sunak and dated 18 December.
Sunak’s track record on ‘inadvertently’ not declaring conflicts of interest leaves much to be desired. Most recently when he failed to properly declare his wife’s financial interests in a childcare company that was benefiting from Government policy. Byline Times has a comprehensive list of his further ‘confused’ moments around publically declaring his conflicts of interest.
Carol Vorderman wrote on X: “NO. BEFORE anyone becomes a Minister they should declare all. Sunak and Cameron now hide behind “blind trusts”. There should be no Financial Conflicts of Interest. Full stop. Corruption, or any sniff of it, must end at the next election Firm rules. Strict adherence Or not allowed to be an MP.”
Another X user wrote: “Desperate from Sunak. Basically if Committee catch me out I will clarify afterwards as it is too much trouble to be completely honest and transparent.”
(Image credit: Simon Walke / Number 10 Downing Street – Creative Commons)
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward, focusing on trade unions and environmental issues
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