8 Dec 2014

Do politicians respect the public?

They are tasked with running the country and their decisions affect all of our lives – but a series of incidents is casting doubt over how seriously MPs take their jobs.

The Sun’s front page on Monday shows Conservative MP Nigel Mills playing Candy Crush Saga during a select committee meeting on pensions.

Mr Mills was filmed by a witness in the meeting playing the game for “more than two and a half hours”. The witness said: “It goes to show that people in Westminster don’t give a monkeys about the people they represent. After all that happened with the expenses scandal, these people are still out for themselves.”

Mr Mills has admitted he played the game, telling the Sun: “It was a long meeting on pension reforms, which is an important issue that I take very seriously.

“There was a bit of the meeting that I wasn’t focusing on and I probably had a game or two.

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“I shouldn’t do it but if you check the meeting I would say I was fully engaged in asking questions that I thought were particularly important in how we get the pensions issue right. I shall try not to do it in future.”

John Prescott tweeted at the prime minister on Monday morning, calling for him to agree that Mr Mills’s behaviour was “unacceptable”. David Cameron has said Mr Mills is a “very hard working MP” and will be “embarrassed” by the incident.

House of Commons authorities have launched an investigation into the incident – not into Mr Mills’s conduct, but into the person who filmed him.

“This was a breach of the filming rules for House of Commons committee rooms, and will be investigated by the serjeant at arms,” a spokesman said.

But it is not the first time MPs have appeared to make light of their jobs.

Earlier this month Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt was exposed as having tabled a debate on poultry farming in order to repeat the word “cock” in the House of Commons – for a dare.

There are numerous instances of MPs falling asleep in parliamentary debates, including Labour’s Stephen Pound during an emergency debate on Afghanistan.

MPs have also appeared to show a lack of respect for their own colleagues. Last year MPs neglected to offer a pregnant Jo Swinson a chair, forcing her to stand for 20 minutes.

And in a more shocking example, Labour MPs were rebuked in 2011 for mocking a fellow Labour MP, Paul Maynard, who has cerebral palsy, for his disability.

But is the real show of disrespect the day-to-day behaviour of MPs – from recurring examples of the misuse of expenses, to the regular spectacle of debates in the Commons? (video below)