Labour would ban ministers from taking lobbying jobs related to their former brief for up to five years to “fix the broken standards system and clean up politics”.
If the rules were breached, the former ministers would face fines decided by an independent commission, which could include losing a portion of their pension or the severance payment, in line with proposals outlined by the committee on standards in public life.
The Guardian understands any former minister would need to approach the party’s newly proposed integrity and ethics commission before taking a paid role. The commission would then decide if the role was considered lobbying, advocacy or portfolio-related.
The proposals for a new watchdog were first announced by the party in 2021. They include a promise to scrap Whitehall’s existing revolving-doors watchdog and introduce a more robust system. The advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba), which was responsible for reviewing Keir Starmer’s job offer to ex-civil servant Sue Gray, would be replaced by the commission, Labour said.
While the commission would have the power to launch its own investigations when rules are broken, the deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner, noted there will “still be a role for the prime minister”, when asked if the PM would have the final say on whether to accept the watchdog’s recommendations on sanctions.
“Yes, there will still be a role for the prime minister, but because they won’t have a veto on starting an investigation and then the recommendations again … the prime minister at the moment appoints his adviser who does the investigations,” she told the Institute for Government.
“It will be done through the independent ethics and integrity commission and then those recommendations will come to parliament.”
As it stands, former ministers can leave office and receive huge sums of money lobbying on behalf of companies, profiting from their work serving the public and giving some companies privileged access to government officials and public funds.
Rayner vowed to “stop the rot” by creating the new commission with stronger powers to punish those who break the rules and show the public that “politics is working for them” by the end of Labour’s first term in government.
Speaking before her speech at the Institute for Government, Rayner said: “After taking a wrecking ball to the economy forcing up mortgage rates, the former prime minister Liz Truss is cashing in after crashing out of government. We have a system where the door is held wide open for former ministers who want to line their pockets as soon as they leave office.
“Labour will stop the revolving door between government and the companies that ministers are supposed to regulate, banning ministers from lobbying after they leave office with proper enforcement against those who break the rules.
“Labour recognises the standards system has been broken and we have a plan to clean up politics. Our genuinely independent ethics and integrity commission will bring the alphabet soup of existing committees and bodies that oversee standards in government under a single body, removed from politicians.”
Rayner’s pledge comes amid fresh analysis seen by the Guardian that shows Liz Truss’s cabinet have received almost £300,000 in second-job income since the former prime minister was forced to resign on 20 October last year.
Two former cabinet ministers under Truss, Brandon Lewis and Ranil Jayawardena, have taken on consulting jobs, while Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have started touring the speaking circuit.
Truss is understood to have spoken more times in paid-for engagements abroad since she was forced to leave No 10 than she has in the House of Commons chamber.
Rishi Sunak had promised to lead with “integrity, professionalism and accountability”, and after entering office appointed Sir Laurie Magnus as his independent adviser. Yet his cabinet was rocked after Gavin Williamson, Nadhim Zahawi and Dominic Raab were forced to quit over accusations over their conduct.
The Conservative former minister Owen Paterson resigned from the Commons in 2021 after a scandal over his lobbying for two companies that employed him as a consultant. David Cameron, the former prime minister, was also involved in a lobbying scandal over his links to Greensill Capital.
Responding to Rayner’s remarks, a Conservative party spokesperson said it’s “unsurprising to see that Angela Rayner doesn’t trust the leader of her own party to oversee ethics in Whitehall”.
