Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests Resignation
Debate between Helen Hayes and Michael Ellis(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
This is the second of the Prime Minister’s hand-picked ethics advisers to resign, alongside his anti-corruption champion. I have met children from two primary schools in my constituency this week. Children as young as seven can see what is plain as day—that this Government are rotten from the top. Does the Minister have any concerns about the impact that this shocking mess is having on trust and confidence in Government and in our democracy?
Michael Ellis
It is the job of all Members of Parliament of all political parties to maintain the honour and integrity of this House, and that is what the Prime Minister continues to do. The fact is that Prime Ministers of all political parties have had Ministers who have been in breach of the ministerial code. Last week I cited some on the Labour side.
Michael Ellis
They have not always done so, and I gave examples last week in the Opposition day debate of cases where Labour Prime Ministers did not take resignations from Ministers who were found in breach of the ministerial code. I would rather not refer to those names again—they are on the record—but that is an example of a Prime Minister being able to say whether they continue to have confidence in their Ministers. That is a constitutional imperative. They must be able, whether a Labour Prime Minister such as Tony Blair or Gordon Brown, or a Conservative Prime Minister, to have confidence in their own Ministers. They cannot absolve themselves of that responsibility by farming it out to somebody else, however honourable that person is.
Downing Street Garden Event
Debate between Helen Hayes and Michael Ellis(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Michael Ellis
It would be inappropriate to make a running commentary on an investigation that is in progress. We will continue to await the result of the investigations undertaken by Sue Gray.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
My constituent Ruby Fuller was a remarkable young woman who had been head girl at the Charter School in Dulwich. She lived by her motto, “Live kindly, live loudly”, in pursuit of her passion for social justice. She had many, many friends. Ruby died aged 18 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma on 15 May, the same day that the Prime Minister sat enjoying cheese and wine in the Downing Street garden and five days before 100 staff were invited to a bring-your-own-booze party. Ruby’s friends had to say goodbye on Zoom, and her family were allowed just 10 people at her funeral. What does the Prime Minister have to say—via his Minister—to Ruby’s family, and also to her friends? These are young people in my constituency who should have confidence in their Government, but they are looking at the evidence in front of them, in plain sight, and seeing that it is one rule for the Government and another for everyone else.
Michael Ellis
What the Prime Minister will have heard, and what I have heard, is that Ruby lived by the motto “Live kindly, live loudly”. To lose such a young life at such a tragic age in such appalling circumstances is a sorrow that those who loved her will never be able to get over. There is nothing that I can say that will ameliorate that. What I can say is that both the Prime Minister and I—and the entire Government—would offer our condolences for their loss and say that, in the short life that Ruby lived, she made people around her happy and she will be remembered throughout the lives of her family and friends.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Hayes and Michael Ellis(2 years, 5 months ago)
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Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
The Paymaster General (Michael Ellis)
Existing procurement rules, which predate covid-19, rightly allow the Government to procure at speed in times of an emergency. The rules are not new and it is for contracting authorities to make their own determinations on when to use them. At the beginning of the pandemic, we issued guidance to set out the options available to Government Departments to buy at pace, bearing in mind the legal framework for procurement. We have since built on that with further guidance on the commercial risks inherent in direct awards. Our “Transforming Public Procurement” Green Paper sets out proposals to update the rules on procuring in times of extreme emergency or crisis, learning from the experience of the pandemic. We will be publishing our response to that consultation shortly.
Helen Hayes
The use of emergency procurement powers during the covid-19 pandemic has been a murky mess. The process has delivered multiple contracts to Tory party friends and donors, and hundreds of millions of pounds of public money has been spent on equipment that could not be used. The use of such powers might have been justified at the start of the pandemic, but 20 months on there is really no excuse for the continued use of accelerated procurement powers. It is now eight months since the consultation on the Green Paper closed and the Government still have not published a response. When will they end the use of emergency measures, and when will they clean up public procurement?
Michael Ellis
I do not accept the characterisation that the hon. Lady puts on the matter, and neither does the National Audit Office—it looked at this and said, as we have rehearsed in the Chamber, that it sees no evidence of the sort of the thing that she refers to. On emergency procurement, it is crucial in any society for the Government to be able to purchase items at emergency speed, for example if lives are to be saved as a consequence, or in other types of emergency. That is nothing new. The public interest was best served by being able to act quickly and decisively.
As for the point that the hon. Lady makes about the situation now, the public sector has reduced its use of regulation 32 powers—the emergency procurement powers. Their use peaked between April and June 2020 at the height of the initial wave of the pandemic. In central Government, the use of these powers has reduced by more than two thirds over the six months from April to September 2021 compared with the same period last year. The use of emergency contracts is rapidly declining.