At a time when we are facing an economic crisis, when people are scared that they can’t afford to feed their families or heat their homes this winter, it’s not enough to simply say honesty matters. We must now see action in building more honest politics. Following weeks of unprecedented political changes and u-turns, on Monday, Liz Truss told the BBC that owning up to a mistake is “the mark of an honest politician”.
Instances like this fuel cynicism and distrust in our politics. A cross-party group of MPs – the Liaison Committee – eventually challenged Boris Johnson, leading him to admit that he was wrong about the claims he made about unemployment. It was also MPs who launched an inquiry into the corrections system because they recognised that the system is not fit for purpose.
Among the things we will discuss is how the Scottish Parliament has allowed for corrections to the record from all MSPs since 2010. We’re not asking for much. For example, enabling the Official Opposition to correct their mistakes in the same way that Government Ministers can would reduce political point scoring and improve public perception of politics and MPs to their constituents.
Mistakes happen. We all make them. Full Fact has never sought a world without mistakes, and certainly not one where owning up to them is seen as a negative.
MPs owe the public the truth. Join over 30,000 others and sign our petition demanding honesty 👇