The Government was taken to the High Court over the matter of MPs and Ministers using their own phones and Whatsapp accounts for conducting government business. Although this is against the Parliamentary and Ministerial code of conduct, the practice is widespread, and lucrative deals have been arranged in this way, thus avoiding any oversight of such deals. During the pandemic, the practice became particularly worrying because of the enormous sums involved in these contracts, many of which bypassed the normal practice of competitive tendering.

The High Court’s judgement is very concerning: in essence, although these are rules set by the Government itself, they are not laws, and therefore the government has not broken any laws, and MPs and Ministers are clearly no longer bound by Parliament’s own rules, allowing a complete freedom for them to arrange contracts with whomsoever they wish without fear of oversight or censure.

For further information on this and other misdeeds of government, may I refer you to the Good Law Project, which brought this case to the High Court.

Carey Keates

Little Martins, Bushey