House of Commons speaker has kept almost 300 gifts over past four years
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/10/lindsay-hoyle-house-of-commons-speaker-gifts-kept?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Posted by ClassicFlavour
House of Commons speaker has kept almost 300 gifts over past four years
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/10/lindsay-hoyle-house-of-commons-speaker-gifts-kept?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Posted by ClassicFlavour
11 Comments
Why does every other job force you to refuse gifts? Doesn’t seem very fair… 🙁
Genuinely hate that MPs aren’t bound by the same ethical rules as civil servants, if anything I think they should be working under even stricter rules.
Civil servants have to hand over any gift that is more valuable than a small, mid quality notebook, regardless of the reason it was given. The Speaker should have to do the same.
Normal gifts not things like SCOTUS Clarence Thomas accepts. Honestly.
The best way forward, for everybody, stop MPs having second jobs of any description, stop any gifts, stop lobbying, and, the hard bit, give them a big pay rise to stop this nonsense,
I know that idea really angers people, but this is literally the only way forward.
MPs vote on these things themselves, they won’t give them up unless are offered something to replace.
We can balance it out, by decreasing the amount of mps particularly in scotland, and decreasing g the house of lords by a half.
And then, we can have an unbreakable hard line for them, only this job, nothing else
“On some occasions, the speaker passed on or shared free gifts with his office. When the North Macedonian ambassador gave him food and drink in November last year, he kept a bottle of Smidgin gin and and a bottle of wine and gave four herbal teas and three pots of Ajvar (a red pepper sauce) to his office.”
Kept the decent stuff for himself, lol.
I mean even if they were bribes … they’re not as low value; he doesn’t actually decide policy
The list is here.
https://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/travel-gifts-and-official-entertainment-registers/
It mostly seems to be trinkets bottles of wine cufflinks ect, the majority of the monetary value is in 2-3 international trips per quarter these seem to be work related, visiting other countries parliaments. The possibly objectionable ones are the sports tickets.
My favourite ones.
Deputy Kristina Moore, Chief
Minister of the Government of
Jersey.
A bag of Jersey potatoes.
Mr Hong Geun Jong, Embassy of Republic of Korea.
Royal Gala apples.
Priti Patel also sends him a Christmas pudding every year.
Could he auction them and raise money for a worthy cause? Probably
I tried to tip the auto breakdown bloke a £5. Absolutely refused; just isn’t allowed apparently. A fiver!
Biggest gift he’s had is staying in his job, an absolute bag of shite speaker
Why is he jetting off around the world first and business class? He can barely articulate himself in parliament, what does he possibly have to offer in front of his foreign equivalents or dignitaries.