Liz Truss accused of leaving an 'open door to corruption' by scrapping ethics advisor

The Foreign Secretary during the hustings in Birmingham on Tuesday said that she didn’t think that you can “outsource ethics to an adviser”.

She also signalled that oversight of ethics and sleaze would be overseen by a “strong chief whip”, a role that is not independent of Government.

“I would return them to Number 12 Downing Street so they are at the heart of Government and making sure there is zero tolerance of misbehaviour,” she said.

Senior Labour MPs last night said that Ms Truss would now have to rewrite the ministerial code, as the role was integral to it functioning.

In June Lord Geidt became the second independent adviser on ministers’ interests to resign from his post under Boris Johnson in as many years after claiming the Prime Minister had made a “mockery” of the ministerial code.

The role involves advising the Prime Minister on whether the ministerial code has been broken through acts such as lying to Parliament or breaking international law.

The advisor also writes the register of ministers’ interests, to provide transparency over undue influence and lobbying.

In 2020 Liz Truss was accused of trying to hide meetings with a think tank by not including them in the register, later u-turning on the decision after Labour accused her of trying to circumvent rules designed to stop the “secret lobbying” of ministers.

“She’s stacking up problems” Chris Bryant, the chair of the standards committee told The Yorkshire Post.

“It’s a complete open door to corruption. Getting rid of this post will be the same as going back to the 1990s and cash for questions.

“We know how that played out in the 1997 election, so good luck with that.”

Liz Truss’ campaign did not provide a comment when approached by The Yorkshire Post.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “Boris Johnson’s ministers have been accused of breaking the Ministerial Code at least three dozen times during his premiership.

“Liz Truss can’t even say whether she backs the Prime Minister's own Code, let alone whether she would seek to abolish the Ministerial Code completely,” she added.