HOURS after delivering a speech on public service, Maidenhead MP Theresa May enjoyed the late summer sunshine at Henley Festival.
The former prime minister was seen by the banks of the River Thames for the five-day event.
The line-up on Thursday, July 7, included Craig David, Maisie Adam, Andy Parsons and Sapphire.
Earlier in the day, she gave the inaugural James Brokenshire lecture on public service to the Institute for Government.
In it, she paid tribute to the MP who had lung cancer. He died on October last year, aged 53.
“Effective government needs effective Ministers – and I can think of no more effective Minister than the late James Brokenshire,” she said, adding the theme of her lecture was restoring faith in politics.
There are three elements, she argued: being a good constituency MP, respecting parliament, and understanding that ministers had to understand issues rather than ‘wing it’.
Mr Brokenshire, she added, “exemplified decency, honesty and integrity – values that I believe are essential in public life if we are to have faith in our politics”.
“In our modern representative democracy, it’s no longer enough simply to turn up at Parliament and shuffle through the voting lobbies. The public rightly expect us to be fighting their corner, taking up their concerns, visible in the community and working for them on local issues and interests.
“They expect us to be making a tangible difference to their everyday lives … I called it the bedrock of our parliamentary democracy and our liberty.”
Mrs May said that this mixture of being an MP and a minister often confused her international counterparts, with one asking what it was like.
“I replied: ‘Put it this way, today I am at this international summit discussing international counter-terrorism. Tomorrow I will open a community vegetable garden.’”
She urged politicians to play by the rules, not have double standards, or to take advantage of the position they hold.
“It’s that inherently British sense of fair play – originally popularised of course through our nation’s greatest sport. Cricket,” she said.
“In cricket it’s not enough to avoid breaking the rules. In fact, the game requires adherence to its traditions as much as its laws…
“In politics of course, playing by the rules means following the law. It’s not unreasonable to expect those of us who write the law of the land to follow its letter and spirit. It also means adhering to the rule of law.”
She had some criticism for the way in which her successors had operated: “The government’s decision back in November to attempt to change the rules on parliamentary standards was ill-judged and wrong.”
And then said: “Our system only works if conventions are not cast aside wholesale or at least not wilfully misinterpreted. It rests on those in positions of authority being trusted to uphold the values and traditions of our public life.”
On conduct, she said: “It takes only a few isolated instances of poor conduct to rubbish the reputation of us all.
“That’s why the accepted standards of conduct in public life must be a high bar.
“This is to engender a culture of high standards, and avoid a situation where the increasing number of isolated incidents begin to resemble a general trend.”
Of Partygate, Mrs May said: “The incidents shown to have taken place during the pandemic in Downing Street and Whitehall over the last two years have done little to dispel these perceptions of excess and exceptionalism, at a time when the rest of the country was making sacrifices.
“Breaking the rules – and the perception of breaking the rules – damages faith.”
The Nolan principles had helped strengthen democracy, but said that without responsible leadership, other principles wither.
“It is particularly inexcusable to see the civil service repeatedly and publicly vilified and blamed when policy isn’t working in the way politicians’ intended,” she said.
“In our system, the buck stops with ministers.”
The speech can be read in full at: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/events/james-brokenshire-lecture
