The crisis of honesty in politics goes further than the current news cycle of whether the Prime Minister misled Parliament on attending parties in Downing Street during the pandemic.
At Full Fact we know from experience that MPs are more honest than prevailing perceptions, but the actions of a few are damaging the reputations of all MPs and parties.
The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were elected to lead, not mislead.
Both have repeatedly misled, whether it’s inaccurate employment claims made in the Commons or misleading statements on the cost of living crisis used in election campaigning. It’s their duty as leaders and democratic representatives to tell the truth.
In order to effectively rebuild trust in politics, MPs must take action and fix our broken political system which acts as if accuracy doesn’t matter.
By signing our petition, 18,000 people have told every MP that the public expects them to tell the truth, and correct their mistakes.
We’re calling for a new system that will require all MPs to correct the record when they get things wrong - like the system that already exists in Scotland. Find out more about the specific changes we’re proposing.
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