The Rundown Podcast: Is Keir Committed To Cleaning Up Politics?
3 min read
This week The Rundown takes a look under the bonnet of British politics, shining a light into the dark corners of how Westminster’s finances operates.
The panel discusses whether the endless pledges to close loopholes and tighten regulations after every scandal have actually led to a crackdown on illegal lobbying and undue influence on democracy, or whether the UK remains vulnerable to illicit wealth, cronyism and financial corruption, despite Keir Starmer’s pledge to clean up politics if he got into power.
Joining Alain Tolhurst to discuss all that and more are Lloyd Hatton, the Labour MP for South Dorset, Sue Hawley, executive director at Spotlight on Corruption, Daniel Bruce, Transparency International UK's chief executive, and the investigative journalist Peter Geoghegan, author of the Democracy for Sale website.
Hatton, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, said the "really important place to start" the conversation is that "trust in politics is at an all-time low".
“I know the Prime Minister will see it, I feel it as a lowly backbench MP, when you go out and talk to your neighbours, your fellow constituents back home, you hear it all the time, and you feel it very keenly.
"That's the starting point, it's really welcome that the government has published a strategy to look at how we restore trust in democracy.”
The MP said ministers have committed to bringing forward a new Elections Bill, which will look to close many of the problems around political corruption.
“It sounds like a very dry thing, the idea being that it really looks at the role that money plays here in Westminster in our political system, whether or not we allow our system to be vulnerable to people who are not entitled to donate, to pour money into our political parties, into campaigning, also looking at the influence of overseas characters who are trying to influence our political system”, Hatton said.
“Those are the kind of things that this piece of legislation is trying to tackle. I really hope it can be a tough piece of legislation, and it isn't a bit of a missed opportunity.”
However, the other panelists argued that there is much more the Labour government can do to protect British politics from undue influence.
The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot
- Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Rundown, or search for 'PoliticsHome' wherever you get your podcasts.
