Elected politicians in Wales who are found to deliberately lie could face removal from office under new proposals designed to restore trust in politics.

These radical changes, suggested by the Welsh Parliament’s standards committee, would also make candidates liable to criminal prosecution for making false statements to win votes.

The Welsh government has committed to introducing legislation aimed at making lying in politics illegal by next year.

The Senedd’s standards of conduct committee has been tasked with determining the best approach to achieve this.

Among the recommendations, the committee suggests strengthening the Senedd’s code of conduct, requiring members to avoid making deliberately misleading statements.

If a member is caught lying, they would be asked to retract their false statement and the correction would be published on their Senedd profile.

In more extreme cases, they could face suspension or be recalled and replaced by a member of their party.

The committee considered creating a law to make lying illegal for elected politicians but deemed this too complex.

Currently, there is legislation in Wales making it an offence for political candidates to make false statements about their rivals’ character or conduct to win votes.

The committee proposes expanding this law to cover any false statement made by a candidate to gain an electoral advantage.

If violated, candidates could face police investigation and prosecution in an electoral court.

This issue has become urgent with changes to the voting system for next year’s Senedd elections, which are expected to make the campaign more contentious.

Reform UK is expected to have a strong chance of winning seats.

Hannah Blythyn, the committee chair, emphasized that strengthening rules for Senedd members and candidates is essential in a time of low public trust in institutions.

Sam Fowles of the Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research called the report a rejection of the notion that demanding honesty from politicians is too difficult.

Jennifer Nadel of Compassion in Politics commended the report but called for further steps, such as criminal sanctions for politicians who lie.

The Welsh government has indicated it will review the findings and respond in due course.