Emily Thornberry MP "unwise" - - Parliamentary Standards Committee

11.31.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th Jun 2006

The House of Commons' Committee on Standards and Privileges today issued a report on the conduct of Emily Thornberry in unilaterally amending a press release issued by the Electoral Commission without their permission or knowledge.

It is highly unusual for the conduct of a Member of Parliament to be sufficiently serious to warrant a full investigation and report from the Standards Committee.

The report agrees that Ms Thornberry did amend the press release and that the Electoral Commission believes the quote she added was "misleading". It finds that this was not a breach of the Code of Conduct for MPs - but that Ms Thornberry's actions were "at the least unwise", "unfortunate" and "not to be condoned".

The Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission also said that "we do not consider that it was acceptable for Ms Thornberry to have changed an Electoral Commission press release without our permission" (para 22, page 11). They also regarded the quotation she added as "misleading" (para 23)

Councillor James Kempton, Leader of the Council said "It is unprecedented for one of our local MPs to be criticised in this way by a committee of Conservative and Labour MPs. Emily Thornberry behaved unwisely and I hope she will consider her actions more carefully in future.

"Ms Thornberry's lapse of judgement arose out of her over-riding desire to get a newspaper headline criticising the Council in the run up to the recent local elections. Following the results of those elections I hope we will be able to have a more honest political debate between the Council and Emily Thornberry in future."

The Facts

1. The full report from the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges is at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmstnprv.htm#reports

2. In February Emily Thornberry, along with many other MPs of all political colours, took part in a photo shoot and press release from the Electoral Commission intended to increase the number of voters registered in Islington. The Electoral Commission, Ms Thornberry and the Liberal Democrats all share the objective of increasing the number of voters on the register.

3. However unlike other MPs, Ms Thornberry also invited the Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Catherine West, to participate in the photograph as well. The Electoral Commission have said that it would have been better if this had not happened.

4. More importantly, she unilaterally amended the Electoral Commission's own press release to insert a factually incorrect quote from herself about electoral registration rates in Islington.

5. The Liberal Democrats believe that this was a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and was inappropriate behaviour for a Member of Parliament. On 16 March Steve Hitchins, then Leader of the Council, made a formal complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who investigated the matter. After investigating the matter the Commissioner believed that the matter was sufficiently serious that he referred it to the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

6. After investigating the complaint fully the Committee on Standards and Privileges has today found that they do not believe Ms Thornberry breached the code of conduct for Members of Parliament. However they also said that it her believed her conduct was "at the least unwise" (para 10)

7. They also said that "Despite being both unwise and unfortunate, Ms Thornberry's actions did not amount to a breach of the Code of Conduct" (para 11). The Parliamentary Commissioner said that her action was "not be condoned" (para 10)

8. The Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission also said that "we do not consider that it was acceptable for Ms Thornberry to have changed an Electoral Commission press release without our permission" (para 22, page 11). They also regarded the quotation she added as "misleading" (para 23)