Following weeks of unprecedented political changes and u-turns, on Monday, Liz Truss told the BBC that owning up to a mistake is “the mark of an honest politician”.
However, for many, this might feel like too little too late. In today’s politics, words rarely match actions, which is why it’s no surprise that according to research by Full Fact, 71% of Britons believe there was more lying and misuse of facts in politics than 30 years ago.
Trust in our democracy is being eroded inside Parliament, and unfortunately, this isn’t a new problem. For instance, when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, he repeatedly made the same false claim about his government’s performance on increasing employment, ignoring organisations including the UK Statistics Authority, Office for Statistics Regulation and Full Fact’s own attempts to encourage him to correct the record.
Instances like this fuel cynicism and distrust in our politics. A cross-party group of MPs – the Liaison Committee – eventually challenged Boris Johnson, leading him to admit that he was wrong about the claims he made about unemployment. It was also MPs who launched an inquiry into the corrections system because they recognised that the system is not fit for purpose.
As it stands, if you are not a Government Minister, you cannot correct the official record, which means that any misleading claims made by MPs remain online and available for anyone to find. This sort of approach does not help build honesty and trust in our politics.
Luckily, this is an issue which has a solution. At today’s Procedure Committee, Full Fact will be giving evidence to highlight how a simple system could work. The inquiry, initially announced in June this year, is recognition by cross-party MPs that changes must be made to Parliament’s corrections system. If MPs agree to change the system, this will be a first step towards more honest politics in Parliament.
Among the things we will discuss is how the Scottish Parliament has allowed for corrections to the record from all MSPs since 2010. We’re not asking for much. For example, enabling the Official Opposition to correct their mistakes in the same way that Government Ministers can would reduce political point scoring and improve public perception of politics and MPs to their constituents.
Of course, bad information is not confined to Parliament. Our current Prime Minister, Liz Truss, recently helped to spread the notion that there was a £2,500 energy bill price cap by repeating the claim across several regional BBC Radio interviews. It’s not unimaginable that this was an accidental error, but bad information has a real life impact. Many believed that their energy bills would be capped this winter, and a Full Fact investigation has identified more than 100 potentially misleading claims about the Energy Price Guarantee—from 25 different politicians and media outlets—creating confusion as to whether their total bills would be capped, rather than the unit price of their energy, which was actually the case.
At a time when we are facing an economic crisis, when people are scared that they can’t afford to feed their families or heat their homes this winter, it’s not enough to simply say honesty matters. We must now see action in building more honest politics.
Mistakes happen. We all make them. Full Fact has never sought a world without mistakes, and certainly not one where owning up to them is seen as a negative.
Recently, we fact checked Labour MP Ian Lavery when he made an incorrect claim about the pay increases for nurses working in the NHS, which was based on a mistake made in a media appearance by the Royal College of Nursing general secretary. We are not suggesting that Ian Lavery MP intended to mislead Parliament, but at the moment, there is no way for him to make a correction to the official record.
It’s in the interests of our MPs to be able to easily correct the record. Rebuilding trust in our politics is paramount, and voters will thank them for it because they understand mistakes happen. It’s failing to correct those mistakes that can be costly.
That’s why Full Fact is campaigning alongside over 34,000 people who want to see renewed a commitment to honest politics in our Parliament. And while we make the case to the inquiry today, we hope you’ll also take the time to join our call for change by signing our petition.
Glen Tarman, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Full Fact
