House of Commons — sitting of 10 September 2026: transcript & video

00:15 - 00:57

Speaker 7

Before we start proceedings today, the House will know that tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The Speaker's Chaplain will deliver a special prayer before the start of business in the chamber tomorrow. Members will also have an opportunity to mark this anniversary during tomorrow's adjournment debate. I know that colleagues across the House will join with me in remembering the victims of the horrific 9/11, the families of all those who died and the men and women involved in rescuing people. Right, we now come to questions to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Joe Powell.

00:57 - 00:59

Speaker 3

Number one please, Mr. Speaker.

00:59 - 01:03

Speaker 1

Minister.

01:03 - 01:22

Speaker 4

I'm grateful to the Commission for its thorough work which we are considering carefully. We know that more can be done on transparency around lobbying and we'll present our response to Parliament in due course. There is a great deal of interest in this, understandably so, and we are determined to get this right.

01:22 - 02:00

Speaker 9

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I strongly welcome the government's efforts to rewire the state and create more accountability for decisions made by government. And as part of that effort, cleaning up our politics is so important, as we've seen from the summer of scandals on the funding of the Reform Party. The Ethics and Integrity Commission have laid out how lobbying can be reformed to make it more open, rational and accountable. So can the Minister outline what immediate steps might be taken and can he assure us he will keep an open mind to their central recommendation, which is legislation for a unified digital open lobbying register?

02:00 - 02:20

Speaker 5

We certainly recognize that the current system of transparency around lobbying does not have widespread support. It isn't good enough. That's why the Ethics and Integrity Commission was asked to report on this matter. We are considering the case for legislative reform very carefully and will report back on the EIC as soon as we can.

02:20 - 02:56

Speaker 8

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister very much for that answer. Minister, when it comes to lobbying, Northern Ireland has a peculiar and particular circumstance where one party can be involved in politics in Northern Ireland and at the same time be involved in politics in the Republic of Ireland. When it comes to looking at the accountability the honorable gentleman and the Minister is putting forward, can he assure us in this House and us in Northern Ireland that the rules that apply here will apply equally in Northern Ireland and apply to the political parties who transverse the border both north and south?

02:56 - 03:09

Speaker 6

It wouldn't be a first outing at the dispatch box without a contribution from the honorable member for Strangford, so I welcome that. We'll of course consider all of that in the response to the EIC. Thank you.

03:09 - 03:58

Speaker 15

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Ethics and Integrity Commission's report rightly argues that our transparency rules are stuck in the past. Influence is being exerted in ways that just didn't exist a few years ago. We've got members of this House earning more than their salary as an MP for posts on X, a platform that actively incentivizes divisive content. Indeed, the register of interest for the member for Great Yarmouth has declared earnings of over 108,000 pounds since his election to this place.

Does the Minister agree that our current laws around what constitutes lobbying are just too narrow and that when an MP is financially rewarded by an algorithm for their political output, it crosses the line into financial influence? Will he update lobbying and ethics rules to tackle this loophole?