The government plans to strengthen transparency rules regarding ministerial entertainment following a spat over freebies received by labor ministers and others.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said BBC ministers would now also have to declare to the parliamentary register any entertainment related to government work.
Currently, this information is published by departments, but infrequently and without the need to specify a value.
This follows weeks of headlines about gifts Sir Keir Starmer and other key ministers received from Labor’s major donor Sir Ali.
Rosie Duffield, who announced on Saturday that she was leaving Labor, cited the criticism and said the party leadership appeared to be “more about greed and power than about bringing about change”.
Currently, MPs must declare gifts and entertainment worth more than £300 if it is considered part of “parliamentary or political activity”.
Such donations must be entered on the Congressional Transparency Register within 28 days, identifying the donor and the estimated amount. The records are republished every other week while Congress is in session.
However, rules introduced under David Cameron’s government allow ministers to declare entertainment related to government work in their departmental returns published every three months, without requiring an estimate of the amount.
This discrepancy came to light in 2022, when Dame Priti Patel registered tickets to the James Bond premiere on the department’s record but not on the MP’s register, and a fellow minister revealed that her attendance was recorded by the minister. claimed to be related to the role of
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Mr McFadden said the situation had created an “imbalance of rules”, imposing different transparency obligations on ministers and shadow ministers attending the same event.
He added that the “loophole” would be closed in a future update to the ministerial code.
The proposed adjustments would not change the types of hospitality that ministers can accept, but they would change the way they must be declared.
The pledge to increase transparency follows weeks of headlines about clothes, flights and accommodation accepted by ministers.
The Prime Minister, Prime Minister and Deputy First Minister have pledged to no longer accept donated clothing after it emerged they had received thousands of pounds worth of work clothes from donors, leading to criticism.
It has emerged that Sir Keir had originally declared the £16,000 worth of clothing as funds for his “private office”, but this office will now be reclassified. He also initially failed to declare thousands of pounds of clothing for his wife Victoria.
Sir Keir has also defended his stay in Sir Ali’s flat during the campaign, which Sir Ali declared a gift worth £20,000, effectively helping his son study for his GCSE exams. He said it was for the purpose of
The donation has raised questions about the TV executive’s closeness to Sir Keir, but Mr McFadden insisted Labor leaders were not seeking to influence the government, saying: does not exist here,” he added.
He also said it was acceptable for the prime minister to embrace free dress, adding that the “presentation” was part of a political campaign.
The current list of MPs includes gifts and entertainment received up to early August, covering most of Labor’s first month in power since its landslide victory in the July general election. I am doing it.
Information on entertainment received by MPs since that date has not yet been made public, with the next update expected later this month.
The Labor government is yet to publish its first list of ministerial concerns, with the first version of the document expected to be published later this year.