THE GUARDIAN: How to fix a broken parliamentary system

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Aditya Chakrabortty is right to call into question the attitudes and behaviour of some of our ministers (Amoral and venal: Britain’s governing class has lost all sense of duty, 27 March). High standards of professional behaviour are maintained in the medical profession by the General Medical Council. Perhaps the MPs’ code of conduct should be strengthened and become active in enforcing its principles of a high standard of conduct in public life. It would need to remove from public office ministers who waste public money while damaging our prison, probation and transport services or who have squandered millions on a vanity bridge project, make racist comments about Muslim women or use false information in a referendum campaign. Doing this might help restore confidence in the majority of MPs who do maintain high standards of behaviour in public life. It could even be a positive outcome of the Brexit fiasco.
Francis Creed
Emeritus professor of psychological medicine, University of Manchester