British members of parliament and peers should be prohibited from accepting overseas trips that have been paid for by foreign governments – and their lobbyists, to protect UK politics against the undue influence by malign outside interests. That’s according to a new report by the anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International (TI UK).
As for the ‘Azerbaijan lobby’, the report says ‘it is seemingly tolerated as almost an eccentricity. The fact that it can be so widely acknowledged as problematic yet remain unchallenged demonstrates that there is a culture of impunity that is undermining the integrity of our democracy’. Some 71 parliamentarians and their staff have been on 111 known visits to that country between 2007 and 2017.
“In Whose Interest?” claims that some parliamentarians are, often consciously, helping to launder the reputations of corrupt and repressive regimes – through providing political access and lobbying on their behalf, says TI UK. Many have been treated to all-expenses paid trips with either no clear purpose or to major events promoting the country, paid for by the host government or other parts of the regime.
Transparency International is calling on Parliament’s Commissioners for Standards to conduct an inquiry into the conduct of MPs’ and peers’ roles in legitimising the actions of foreign states. The House of Commons’ Commissioner recently found that Ian Paisley MP had failed to declare the full cost of two luxury holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan Government, and later advocated on its behalf.
TI UK’s research has three country case studies to illustrate how UK parliamentarians have supported corrupt and repressive regimes in Azerbaijan, Russia and Bahrain. It finds:
At least £333,000 spent on flights and accommodation for British parliamentarians to visit Azerbaijan between 2007 and 2017 – 84 per cent of which was paid for by the government or lobbyists and institutions connected to the regime;
12 British MPs’ paid at least £93,700 in total to appear on Russian state TV since 2014; and
Two UK parliamentarians provided advisory services to the King of Bahrain, including when the country engaged in a crackdown against Arab Spring protests in 2011.
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK, said: “International visits can certainly aid informed parliamentary debate, but when these trips are offered by foreign governments they undermine the independence of those MPs accepting them. Citizens abroad have looked on our parliamentarians supporting their oppressors with anger and hostility, damaging the reputation of the UK abroad as a champion of democracy and human rights. Subsequent advocacy legitimising often brutal, repressive and corrupt regimes can leave people there subject to further ill-treatment from emboldened governments, and abandoned in their struggles for justice.”
“It is time to end the discredited practice of our parliamentarians enjoying generous foreign hospitality and recognise the harm this is doing to our democratic system. Our politicians are elected to work on our behalf, not the interests of foreign states who increasingly have subversive desires. Global scandals have exposed the activity of foreign states meddling in the affairs of others and we need to shore up our defences against this sort of activity.”
To read the 23-page report visit the TI UK website.
