As Liz Truss enters office, the Conservative Party will be hoping for a fresh start with a change of leader. The new prime minister can present a fresh-faced cabinet to the country, mark an end to the Johnson era of sleaze and scandal. But while the person at the top may have changed, the incoming administration is far from squeaky clean. A number of Truss’s top team were key parts of the Johnson administration, and were active rulebreakers during this time.
As Yorkshire Bylines refreshes our ‘Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers’, we find that sevenof Truss’s cabinet have been credibly accused of breaching the ministerial code in previous government jobs.
Liz Truss – Prime Minister
Before we even delve into her cabinet, we have to consider the fact that Truss herself may have broken the ministerial code. Truss was accused of breaking the code as international trade secretary when having a dinner with her Australian counterpart, Simon Birmingham. Such meetings require the presence of a member of the civil service, which Truss refused to have.
Truss has also been accused by the Liberal Democrats of breaking the ministerial code by using the Chevening mansion, reserved for foreign secretaries, for campaigning activities during the Conservative leadership election.
James Cleverly – Foreign Secretary
James Cleverly was accused last June when serving as Middle East minister of breaching the ministerial code in failing to answer parliamentary questions in relation to arms sales to Israel.
Reporting by Declassified UK revealed that Cleverly had obfuscated answers to 14 questions in a short span of time, falling short of the requirement for ministers to “be as open as possible with parliament”.
Kemi Badenoch – International Trade Secretary
Kemi Badenoch was accused last year of breaking the ministerial code last year while serving as equalities minister. Badenoch leaked private correspondence with journalist Nadine White, lashing out at the reporter on Twitter and describing her as “creepy”. In the process, she exposed White to online abuse, and the journalist had to lock their Twitter account to avoid further attacks.
Labour MP Marsha de Cordova accused Badenoch of acting in an unprofessional manner, and disclosing private information not in the public interest, thus breaching the code.
Nadhim Zahawi – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Nadhim Zahawi was accused of two separate breaches of the ministerial code, most notably failing to declare his interest in his family’s property empire. This was connected to the purchase of warehouses in Kent by a company owned by Zahawi’s wife in the days leading up to a Brexit deal which Zahawi played a key role in securing when acting as a business minister.
Ben Wallace – Defence Secretary
Ben Wallace, was accused by the media organisation Tortoise of personally intervening as defence secretary to ensure that a £5bn National Cyber Force HQ was situated on the border of his constituency.
If true, then Wallace would have breached the code in failing to delineate his roles as local MP and minister.
Chris Heaton-Harris – Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Chris Heaton-Harris’ appointment as Northern Ireland secretary may be his first seat at the top table, but already he has been accused of breaching the ministerial code. While acting as a junior Brexit minister, Heaton-Harris was accused of breaching the ministerial code by former Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake.
Brake alleged that, in meeting with representatives from Spanish far-right party Vox without reporting this through the proper channels, Heaton-Harris had failed to live up to the transparency standards set in the code.
Alister Jack – Secretary of State for Scotland
Jack remains in brief as one of only two ministers to have survived through the Johnson era into the start of Truss’s. During his time under Truss’s predecessor he had notably breached the ministerial in promoting a Daily Mail article on a gov.uk website.
The article was critical of the SNP and full of praise for Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, and so in using the machinery of state to elevate it was clearly using public resources for party political needs, a clear violation of the code.
