COMMENT: UPDATES FROM PARLIAMENT

The conduct of the Prime Minister has once again been making a mockery of Britain. We now know for certain that several parties held at Number 10 during lockdown are under investigation by the police. The initial report by senior civil servant Sue Gray had to be significantly cut down to avoid prejudicing their investigations, but even so it gives a damning verdict on Boris Johnson. This week we had yet another “apology” from the Prime Minister yet a few minutes later he was brazenly laughing at MPs who demanded that he accept responsibility. The woeful nature of accountability in the British Parliament was made clear when SNP leader Ian Blackford was thrown out of the chamber for saying the Prime Minister had misled Parliament, when everyone knew that “misled” was putting it mildly.

I supported my colleague Alison Thewliss in chasing up the Government’s failure to take proper action against “economic crime”. They’ve been promising tougher legislation for years but they’ve done nothing. Business regulation is full of loopholes that allow people who have made billions from criminal activities almost anywhere in the world to “launder” the money by setting up complicated networks of companies which exist only on paper. A huge issue is that there are some kinds of companies that don’t need to disclose who actually owns them, allowing international crime gangs to pose as legitimate businesses. The government claimed they were keen to bring forward new legislation but couldn’t find a slot in the parliamentary timetable. The very same day, parliament finished three and a half hours early because the government hadn’t programmed enough business.