The Guardian view on MPs’ interests: Declare shareholdings affected by laws going through parliament | Editorial

The rules leave voters ignorant of the tension that almost certainly exists between shielding financial interests and advancing the public good

Far too little is known about one aspect of the closeness of connections between MPs and private companies: the stake of the former in the latter. This is because parliamentarians’ investments in firms have been rendered largely secret. That was until this week when the Guardian revealed that more than 50 members of parliament have owned stakes in publicly listed companies, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. MPs have only to register holdings greater than 15% of a company, or those valued at more than £70,000. Below those limits, the test for MPs to consider is whether their interests might reasonably be thought by others to influence them. But there is no duty on MPs to declare such stakes in companies affected by legislation going through parliament. This can only be bad for democracy.

Voters are mostly left ignorant of the tension that almost certainly exists for such MPs between shielding financial interests and advancing the public good. Can it be right for a former Tory minister to criticise windfall taxes on oil and gas companies, including BP, without declaring his wife’s shares in the company, worth more than £50,000? The answer is, surely, no. Parliamentarians could argue that such ethical dilemmas don’t occur. But the system is such that the perception of these quandaries never arises.

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