The UK parliamentary commissioner concluded Thursday that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak breached Member of Parliament (MP) rules by failing to declare a relevant interest to the Liaison Committee in March 2023. Sunak failed to be “open and frank” in declaring his interest in a childcare agency in which his wife is a shareholder. Such childcare providers could benefit from changes under new policies announced in the Spring Budget.
The inquiry, conducted by Daniel Greenberg, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, was opened in April 2023 following a complaint alleging Sunak had failed to declare a relevant interest during the parliamentary committee hearing on March 28, 2023. At this hearing, the Liaison Committee discussed the Government’s financial incentive scheme for people joining the childcare workforce. During questioning, Sunak did not declare that his wife held shares in a childcare agency that the Government had selected to be a part of the new policy. Greenberg then investigated whether Sunak broke Rule 6 of the Code of Conduct (the Code), which states: “Members must always be open and frank in declaring any relevant interests in any proceeding of the House or its Committees.”
When Greenberg initially sought comments from Sunak regarding the matter, the Prime Minister claimed he had declared this interest on the Ministerial Register. Greenberg said that Sunak had “confused the concept of registration . . . with the concept of declaration.” Following a further meeting on in June with Sunak, Greenberg acknowledged that Sunak may not have been aware of his wife’s shareholding at the time of the March hearing, but affirmed nonetheless that Sunak “had a duty to correct the record.” Greenberg emphasized that Sunak was both aware of this interest and had failed to correct the record by the time he wrote to the Chair of the Liaison Committee,. The inquiry concluded that Sunak’s actions were an “inadvertent breach” of the Code.
Greenberg ended the inquiry and said it should be concluded by the “rectification procedure,” a process that corrects minor failures to declare interests. The inquiry is now closed and no further action will be taken against Sunak.
