Bad to the Bone: is this the sleaziest parliament of all time?

Now Peter Bone has been dumped by his constituents in Wellingborough, it means that since the 2019 election, one in 20 MPs has been suspended, lost the party whip or left the Commons after misconduct allegations – a remarkable 34 out of 650. The current parliament has entered the record books, but not in the way anyone would wish – it is the sleaziest in history.

The former deputy Commons leader was suspended for six weeks after complaints he bullied and exposed himself to a staff member in his twenties, which he denied.

Enough (more than 10 per cent) of his constituents signed a recall petition, triggering the 20th by-election since 2019 and another headache for Rishi Sunak. A second contest is expected in Blackpool South, where Tory MP Scott Benton faces a 35-day Commons suspension after offering to lobby for gambling industry investors. He apologised but denied breaking parliamentary rules.

The Tories privately fear defeat to Labour in both looming by-elections, putting a cloud over Sunak’s new year drive to narrow Labour’s 20-point lead in the opinion polls.

Why is the current parliament so sleazy? It’s partly due to the introduction in 2018 of a long overdue independent system making it easier for staff to make complaints about MPs. But it also reflects the calibre of those who become our not-so-honourable members, which has declined during my 40 years on the Westminster beat. We no longer attract the brightest and best, and I fear the abuse MPs get on social media – particularly women – will exacerbate the problem.

True, I have seen some welcome changes. The drinking culture much is less prevalent than when I came in (my “interview” for a previous job involved three gin and tonics at noon in an already busy Annie’s Bar – then shared by MPs and journalists, now closed). More sensible working hours, with far fewer late-night sittings, have helped.

But the wave of misconduct claims since 2019 shows that one thing has not changed: even lowly backbenchers can think they are a god to be worshipped by their staff and abuse their positions, whether by bullying or sexual harassment.

One ray of hope is that the political parties now vet their parliamentary candidates much more carefully, so more wrong’uns should be weeded out before they get to Westminster. In time, a new generation ought to be better behaved than their elders. That doesn’t address the calibre issue. A pay rise for MPs is never going to be popular – an expected 7.1 per cent increase to £92,731 in 2024-25 will be no exception – but I would pay them a six-figure salary to give people an incentive to choose public service rather than the private sector, and to compensate them for the social media nastiness and disruption to family life.

As the list of suspended MPs mounts, there are now more independent MPs (17) than Liberal Democrats (15). The power for constituents to recall their MP, a response to the 2009 controversy over parliamentary expenses, was a good move – but there are still gaps. Some suspended MPs strike a deal with their party’s whips to stay away from Westminster but then don’t stick to it. One MP, arrested on suspicion of rape and other offences but who denies wrongdoing and has not been charged, has kept away but still claims expenses and has been on foreign trips worth £8,548.

I suspect the first instinct of the whips can still be to put party rather than public interest first, even if that means sweeping things under the carpet to avoid embarrassment.

I don’t doubt that Sunak was sincere in his pledge to offer “integrity, professionalism and accountability” after Boris Johnson showed contempt for the rules and resigned as an MP rather than risk a by-election over his lies on Partygate. But the danger for Sunak is that it looks like another broken promise as the allegations and by-elections keep on coming.

The parallel with the “Tory sleaze” during John Major’s government – a divided, exhausted party clinging to power after a long spell in office as its time runs out – is ominous for Sunak. Major’s woes ended in a crushing defeat in 1997.

Yet the parallel is not quite accurate. The post-2019 list of shame includes 17 Tories, but also 13 Labour MPs. The public’s reaction today is more “a plague on all your houses” than “get the Tories out”.

Although there will be other reasons why many voters will want to do that, Labour might not reap the benefit from “Tory sleaze” as it did in 1997. The lack of trust in politicians generally means disenchanted voters have little faith Keir Starmer’s party would do any better in upholding standards. “They think we are all as bad as each other,” one senior Labour figure admitted to me. The private fear of some Starmer allies is that people won’t trust the party’s policy offer either. Tricky.