Breaking the code

Pepys | 4th November 2021 | Uncategorised

The government seems to believe pragmatism and practice should outweigh the law or international treaties

The phrase “breaching the ministerial code” continues to ricochet around Westminster. From appointing a lover to a departmental board to bullying civil servants, the charge sheet is growing. There’s also a growing sense that, in this administration, you can get away with just about anything. Although this crop of ministers is not necessarily more poorly behaved than their predecessors, what is striking is that breaches of the code and calls for investigations have been so readily dismissed by the prime minister. Johnson overruled Alex Allan, his inde- pendent adviser on ministerial interests, when he found that Priti Patel had indeed harassed staff. He failed to reprimand Matt Hancock for breaching Covid regulations. He refused to investigate housing secretary Robert Jenrick’s ties with property developer and Conservative Party donor Richard Desmond. In fact, the last time a minister resigned for breaching the code was in 2017, when an inquiry found Damian Green had misled the public a...

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