Professor Robert Barrington of the Centre for the Study of Corruption (CSC) considers Keir Starmer’s record on ethics and integrity, and the questions that may shape assessments of Andy Burnham’s approach.

Few people doubt that Keir Starmer is a decent man.  Yet within weeks of entering Downing Street, he was subject to an integrity scandal: wardrobe-gate, in which he was found to have accepted clothing worth £16,200 from a party donor, who was subsequently granted an access pass to the highest levels of government.  This was followed by the football freebies, when he accepted premium tickets from clubs which his government was about to regulate, and which wanted to influence that regulation in their favour.

For month after month, Starmer neglected to appoint a new Anti-Corruption Champion, a government post that already been left vacant throughout the tenure of Rishi Sunak.  His government took eighteen months to publish a new Anti-Corruption Strategy which had been sitting on desks waiting for signature since well before Starmer came into office.  The planned Covid Corruption Commissioner was downgraded into a part-time fixed-term post which would only look at fraud and not corruption.  And there were many other examples of integrity-related issues taking a back seat, such as the failure to take firm action on controlling political party funding.  

Integrity breaches are a pathway to corruption, and can happen in any country, Britain included.  Starmer’s tenure shows us that even someone known for their personal integrity makes compromises when they get into power; and that faced with significant geopolitical, social and economic problems, addressing integrity and corruption slips way down the list of priorities.

But these things are important for three reasons.  First, ethical mis-steps reduce trust in politics and politicians, driving the electorate towards the anti-politics of populism.  Secondly, they normalise a politics that lacks integrity, which makes it easier for the next crop of ministers and public officials to breach norms and standards.  Thirdly, they represent a missed opportunity to Trump-proof Britain: we should be looking across the Atlantic to see what happens when there is a power grab by a corrupt but charismatic leader, and doing what we can to shore up our own defences against such an eventuality.

So how would Andy Burnham fare – and is there any reason to suspect that would prioritise ethics and integrity any more or less than Starmer?  There has been a ripple of interest in the Manchester press about a possible conflict of interest between his wife’s job and the Council’s green policies; the substance of the story looks thin, and Burnham has sought to close it down with a fierce denial.  In fact, like so many other policy issues, Burnham’s position on standards in public life is not known, so seasoned watchers of ethics and integrity in British politics will be looking out for some key signals:

• What will happen to Josh Simons?  You may recall that he resigned from the Starmer government – with no apparent apology or sign of regret – for a gross breach of ethics committed before he became an MP; he is known to be a close Burnham adviser.  Will he be given a central role, and what would that tell us about Burnham’s prioritisation of political expediency over ethics?
• Is there a commitment to reforming or upgrading the role of Anti-Corruption Champion – and indeed, how long will it take to make an appointment to this post?
• Will the planned Summit on Illicit Financial Flows go ahead in December, with its aim to get under control the UK’s role in becoming a centre for dirty money?
• Will we see a speech or article by Burnham setting out his views on this issue?  That itself will be a signal that he and his team understand the threat of corruption to a democratic system that is challenged by populism, disinformation and public mistrust.

Since the Nolan Principles were introduced in 1995, we have seen Prime Ministers of very high integrity and very low integrity.  Our anti-corruption systems were just about coping until the Boris Johnson government, and since then the UK has seen a slide in its standing on all the major indices of governance and corruption.  Whoever replaces Keir Starmer, the issue of ethics and integrity will need to be a higher priority than it has been for some while.

Robert Barrington’s new book on corruption in the UK, Corrupted Kingdom, is published in July.