'We could go further': Commons leader Lucy Powell admits Parliament behaviour a work in progress

29 December 2024, 00:01

Parliament has come "quite some way in recent years" in terms of behaviour and culture, the Leader of the House of Commons has said, but there are "definitely things (...) which we could go further on".

Cabinet minister Lucy Powell told the PA news agency that Westminster "definitely had a perception" of a poor working culture but a new cohort of MPs presents an "opportunity to establish better working practices and better standards of culture and behaviour".

After July's general election, a total of 335 new MPs arrived in Westminster, more than half of the 650 total bloc, including 214 for Labour.

In September, a new Commons modernisation committee set out that overhauling standards would be among its priorities, with MPs' second jobs also due under the spotlight.

Read More: Government facing Commons vote amid WASPI women 'betrayal'

Read More: Starmer demands 'proposals for growth' from regulators as PM seeks to boost UK economy

Asked whether she thought Parliament has a behaviour or drinking problem, the MP for Manchester Central said: "We definitely had a perception of sort of bad behaviour, bad culture. I think we've come some way in recent years on that, with the establishment of the ICGS (Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme) for example."

The ICGS is a mechanism for concerns over bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct in Parliament to be raised, assessed and potentially investigated.

"But there's definitely things coming through on that which we could go further on, that people are still concerned about," Ms Powell added.

The last parliament saw 16 MPs suspended for at least one day - more than in the previous five parliaments combined.

Behaviour code training is among the things new MPs have been offered since they arrived in Westminster.

"We certainly have a new opportunity to establish better working practices and better standards of culture and behaviour, given that we have so many new MPs," Ms Powell said.

"And that's why it's good that so many of them have taken up the training, and so many of them are taking these issues seriously."

Ms Powell, who has been in the Commons since 2012, sees modernisation as a programme of changes that will come over the course of this Parliament but is keen for there to be progress "quickly".

"It's not going to be one big bang but of course there will be some things as we move forward where they're interconnected," she explained.

The cross-party modernisation committee is made up of 14 members from across the Commons, and comes after what Ms Powell labelled as Westminster "coming off the back of what was kind of a real era of sleaze and scandal and disrepute on parliament in particular but on our politics".

Ms Powell said: "We were elected on a mandate of change, part of what was in our manifesto was a recognition that we needed to restore Government to a politics of service and for me as Leader of the House, and shadow leader of the house before the election, that also meant looking at how we do our politics and making sure that it's fit for the democratic challenges of the future (...), making sure that when the public look in on the Commons and on Parliament that we are behaving and operating in a way that they would expect."

She added: "A huge amount of new MPs, seeing Parliament through their eyes for the first time and the Commons through their eyes, has really given extra momentum to modernisation."