Jacob Rees-Mogg announces U-turn over sleaze committee following backlash
Boris Johnson’s government has completed a full U-turn on yesterday’s vote to set aside recommendations Owen Paterson be suspended over paid lobbying and subsequently set up a new sleaze system for parliament.
Now a new vote will take place allowing MPs to decide on Mr Paterson’s suspension and undo the creation of Andrea Leadsom’s new standards regime. The plan, for which the government whipped its MPs sparking a huge backlash, did not even get off the ground on Thursday.
Lord Evans, chair of the independent committee on standards in public life, said this morning the “extraordinary proposal [was] deeply at odds with the best traditions of British democracy”, adding it “cannot be right this was accompanied by repeated attempts to question the integrity of the commissioner on standards herself”.
Jacob Rees Mogg was forced shortly afterward to sue for peace in the Commons.
Yesterday’s vote followed the standards committee’s recommendation that Mr Paterson be suspended for 30 days after he was found to have conducted paid lobbying of the government, though he claims the probe was mishandled.
22 Tory MPs investigated by parliament’s watchdog voted to overhaul it
A group of 22 Conservative MPs who voted for the government’s botched overhaul of parliament’s disciplinary process have been investigated by the conduct watchdog, writes Adam Forrest.
Boris Johnson’s government was forced into an extraordinary U-turn over controversial plans to rip up the standards system after widespread outrage.
Jon Sharman4 November 2021 13:52
Paterson found out about U-turn in shops – from a journalist
Owen Paterson, the former Tory minister who was the focus of yesterday’s standards vote, is said to have had no idea Downing Street was performing a U-turn on the decision to delay his immediate suspension.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, the broadcaster’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the MP was in a supermarket when he got the news – on a phone call from a BBC journalist.
MPs had voted 250 to 232 in favour of an amendment to the Commons standards procedure, which would have seen a new committee – with a Tory majority – decide Mr Paterson’s fate. However, ministers were forced to backtrack following reprisal from inside and outside Westminster.
Sam Hancock4 November 2021 13:46
Conservative MP…
Read More: Owen Paterson news live: Boris Johnson U-turns with new vote on suspending