Values of truth, honesty and integrity lie at the centre of the political earthquake in Westminster that caused Boris Johnson to stand down.
Concerns over bending the rules, lying, misleading and a lack of integrity at No 10 has led church leaders to appeal for integrity to be put at the centre of the electorate’s concerns.
The malaise in public life — and the tumultuous consequences when lies are found out — were discussed at a Religion Media Centre briefing.
The Anglican Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, said events of the past few days had scandalised the population and there was a general recognition that the next prime minister must have a clear moral compass.
Asked whether bishops had a duty to offer advice on morality in public life, he said the church spoke out regularly on issues of public interest, but there was “a proper place for giving advice and having conversations in private as well as in public”.
John Arnold, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford, said this was the time to be honest and make corrections. Something had gone wrong and it had damaged the party and government. High standards would appear to have been compromised very badly in recent times, he said.
He predicted there would be a lot of common statements about sincerity, truth and integrity and he would be encouraging people to write to their MPs and be actively involved in the democratic system.
He added: “We’ve got to speak out about the importance of truth in all things, but we have to be sure that there are those structures in place by which people are held to account if there is a question that there is untruth, that people are lying, that people are covering things up.”
Professor Chris Baker, William Temple Professor of Religion and Public Life at Goldsmiths, University of London, said there was a crisis in values in society, with some politicians believing there was no absolute rule. Anything that was not absolutely outlawed was lawful and proper. This had been seen in the expenses scandal and here it is again.
But he said we could not have an entirely rules-based society: “We have to have values-based societies.” He said there was a spiritual malaise at the top of politics. Society was broken because, in the past few decades, public life had an absence of guiding values, virtues and principles.
He quoted the former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, that the church had the right to interfere and the church should interfere where it saw society, the social order, not fulfilling the principles of God.
The country was “at a particularly interesting point in our history as a nation, the point of multiple crises — environmental, economic and war”. He compared it to the issues facing the UK in the 1940s.
“It’s not as if we don’t have integrity to call upon. Because we are a democracy, we can ask our politicians to have integrity. We can say to them, ‘Please, would you pay attention to your moral character”
– Dr Claire Foster-Gilbert
Dr Claire Foster-Gilbert, director of the Westminster Abbey Institute, agreed the country was in crisis, adding: “Integrity muscle in public life has gone very flabby indeed. I see this working with all sorts of different public servants, including politicians and civil servants, that even for those who have the greatest wish to act with integrity, it’s not rewarded.
“It’s not as if we don’t have integrity to call upon. Because we are a democracy, we can ask our politicians to have integrity. We can say to them, ‘Please, would you pay attention to your moral character’.”
During the briefing, the discussion paused to hear the prime minister announcing he was standing down.
Bishop Arnold reflected: “One thing if I may just comment in what the prime minister said a few moments ago: there was no question of any fault or default on his part, which I found extraordinary. And I’m not sure even use the word resigned.
“I think that there is a culture that has to be rebuilt and they have to be held accountable for it,” he said, adding that there must be a sense of collaboration for a common end, to create a better society based on the right sort of principles.
View the briefing in full from 7th July 2022:
