A book on parliamentary sleaze? Talk about perfect timing. Well, almost. These days, there’s so much parliamentary sleaze that no author could possibly keep up with it. I received my review copy of Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament more than two months before publication. Since then, we’ve seen the following.
Boris Johnson facing a 90-day suspension for lying to the Commons; Johnson’s immediate departure from politics; the row over the cronyism of his final honours list; the resignation of a Tory MP, David Warburton, after he admitted taking cocaine; fresh allegations of sexual harassment against an ex-Tory (now independent) MP, Julian Knight; the eight-week suspension of yet another Tory MP, Chris Pincher, over allegations of groping…
As a result of all these developments, some of which made it into the final version and some of which did not, that review copy was both blisteringly topical and quickly out of date. One chapter had ended with a voter telling the author: “If Boris gets away with all those lies, there’s no point in voting any more.” A new coda points out that there’s no need to worry about that now.
None the less, we still need ideas on how to clear up sleaze in general. And few people are better placed to offer some than the man who’s written this book, Sir Chris Bryant. A Labour MP for over 20 years, he’s also the chairman of the Committees on Standards and Privileges, the author of a two-volume history of Parliament – and a tirelessly voluble authority on the official guide to parliamentary protocol. “I haven’t just read Erskine May,” he boasts, “I have read several different editions of it – and occasionally exchange notes with the Clerk of the House about elements that need updating.” Little pleases him more, he adds, than “asking the Speaker to rule on a point of order about the proper conduct of business”.
If that makes him sound like an officious little fusspot, don’t be put off. For one thing, Sir Chris is admirably self-aware: “I can be impulsive, sanctimonious and pompous”. And for another, he’s very readable. He has a fine fund of historic anecdotes: for example, the one about the 18th-century MP who, as punishment for forgery, was put in the pillory and pelted with “eggs, ordure and dead cats”.