Ministers row back over MPs interest in lobbying scandal

Ministers attempted to row back from the corruption row when Boris Johnson’s government attempted to review rules on MPs standards after a Conservative MP, and ally of Johnson, was found guilty of corrupt lobbying.

After government minister Stephen Barclay expressed “regret” over the government’s handling of the saga, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the Johnson administration of “giving a green light to corruption”.

Last month, a report by Parliament’s standards commissioner Kathryn Stone found that Conservative MP Owen Paterson had repeatedly breached House of Commons rules banning “paid advocacy” in lobbying government for two companies paying him a combined £100,000.

The government last week attempted to replace the Standards Commission with a new committee, chaired by a Conservative MP, only to abandon the plans when the opposition parties said they would boycott it. Paterson has now resigned as an MP.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is believed to have personally backed the plans to replace the regulator, having himself been found guilty of breaking Parliamentary standards rules several times, did not attend the debate, prompting opposition lawmakers to accuse him of “running scared”.

(Benjamin Fox | EURACTIV.com)