4 November 2021
Peter Aldous calls for reforms of the Standards Committee to be put in place quickly

Peter Aldous calls on the Leader of the House of Commons to move quickly to ensure full cross-party involvement and support for any reforms needed to the Standards Committee in order to restore Parliament's credibility with the public.

Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)

With regard to yesterday’s amendment to the Standards Committee’s motion and my right hon. Friend’s statements this morning, both initially and in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) and the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), I welcome this move, but I emphasise the need to move very, very quickly for cross-party involvement and to allay the concerns that have already been expressed by members of the public. Our credibility is destroyed if we do not nip this in the bud very, very quickly.

Mr Rees-Mogg (The Leader of the House of Commons)

I think we have moved quickly. We recognise that not achieving cross-party support yesterday made it very difficult to get the reforms that we are seeking. We do still seek to have a system that is properly fair and allows a genuine form of appeal, but that cannot be done by the fiat of the Government. It needs broader support than that.

Hansard