Scrap the Standards Board

As it's the season of good will I'm going to take a few moments to talk about the recent disqualification from office of a Tory councillor in nearby Cheam.

The councillor has been sacked not by her electors but by an unaccountable, unelected panel of bureaucrats called the Standards Board. Her momentous offence? She accused a local Police Officer of being a Liberal Democrat (an appalling insult, I concede!) and alleging that Sutton Council's planning department was corrupt.

These were offensive, silly, and ill-judged comments and she should have known better. But for me, pretty much the only reason a councillor (or any other elected official) should be disqualified from office is if they have been found guilty of a criminal offence.

The Standards Board is an example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions: it was set up by MPs a few years ago to enhance the quality of local politics - indeed, councillors are now held to a far tougher standard of public behaviour than MPs.

But it has had the opposite effect with the most petty of complaints being made - often by politicians of other parties as a means to smear their opponents. Rather than being held to a higher standard they're now finding themselves victims of the lowest possible one. Complaints have been upheld against councillors who have had "private" altercations while walking the dog, going shopping or taking the kids to school - nothing to do with their job as councillors.

We already have a most powerful sanction to deal with unacceptable, lazy or incompetent politicians. It's called an election.

It's time to scrap the Standards Board - it's something I will campaign for as MP for Putney. But if fellow MPs feel otherwise, let's see them accept the same levels of interference, censorship and petty vindictiveness over themselves as they've imposed on councillors.

Here's more on the story from the Sutton Guardian.