‘World first’: Welsh government pledges to make lying in politics illegal

Do politicians lie too much? That’s what the Welsh government has in mind, having committed to passing legislation that would see members of the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, suspended if they make deliberately misleading statements, the Guardian reports.

After an hour-long debate in the same parliament on Tuesday night, Labour’s chief adviser Mick Antoniw said the legislation would be introduced before the next general election in two years’ time. “The Welsh Government will legislate by 2026 to disqualify members and candidates found guilty of wilful deception through an independent judicial process,” he said.

An attack on the parliamentary privileges of MPs?

Adam Price, a member of Plaid Cymru, a left-wing nationalist party campaigning for Welsh independence, welcomed the “historic” announcement, which was a “world first”. He said the collapse of trust in politicians was an existential threat to democracies around the world. “We need to innovate, we need to try different things. It’s a small minority of politicians, populist demagogues, who deliberately distort the truth for their own political gain but make life miserable for everyone,” he said.

A fair decision according to Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, who tried to explain why lying is so common in politics. “Deception is commonplace in politics, in large part because we don’t face real consequences,” she said.

However, some Senedd members, such as Conservative James Davis, expressed concerns that the legislation “could potentially breach the parliamentary privilege” of MPs, a view shared by Hefin Dawid, a Labour member. In total, the legislation, which was proposed by a majority, was passed by 26 votes in favour, 13 against and 13 abstentions.