Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves says Labour is closing ‘Tory freebies loophole’ over declaring hospitality.

Ministers will have to comply with tougher rules on declaring gifts as Labour closes ‘Tory freebies loophole’, MPs told

Ellie Reeves, the Cabinet Office minister, has confirmed that the government will tighten the rules about the declaration of gifts given to ministers.

In response to an urgent question tabled by John Glen, a shadow minister, she said the “Tory freebies loophole” was being closed. She explained:

Transparency is a critical part of restoring public faith in politics and the government recognizes the changes are needed.

Under the last government, the rules for ministers declaring hospitality were less transparent than for other MPs. Lists of hospitality received by ministers were only published by Whitehall departments once a quarter and did not include the value.

In contrast, MPs’ and shadow ministers’ interests must be declared within 28 days and include the cost of the hospitality.

Tory ministers used this loophole even when events appeared to have little connection to their government roles.

Both House of Commons committee on standards and the committee on standards in public life called for this disparity to be removed.

Under the last government, Labour frontbenchers who went to events and ended sitting next to their Tory counterparts, and Labour MPs, had to declare details on their MP register – importantly, including value – while Tory ministers did not on the equivalent ministerial process.

The government will correct this imbalance. The Tory freebies loophole will be closed.

In the future, the government will publish a register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality on a broadly equivalent basis to that which is published in registers of members and Lords interests. This will bring publication of ministerial transparency data more closely in light of the parliamentary regime for gifts and hospitality.

The government intends that these arrangements should be in place as soon as possible, and will set out further details in due course.

Reeves also said Keir Starmer will “shortly” issue an updated version of the ministerial code setting out “his expectations for the conduct of all who serve in government and ministers”.

It will include “additional guidance to ministers on the principles they should apply when considering whether to accept gifts or offers of hospitality, as part of the government’s work to restore public faith in politics as a force for good”, she said.