Tories move to overturn sanction and rig standards system after lobbying breach

Boris Johnson is backing a bid to avoid the 30-day suspension of a Conservative MP found by an independent inquiry to have committed an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules. The government is instructing Tory MPs to support an amendment being put forward by Andrea Leadsom today, which argues that a probe by the parliamentary standards commissioner into Owen Paterson MP was flawed. It seeks to overturn any sanction and instead establish a new committee to review the evidence and report back by February.

Describing it as “the most appalling double standards”, Labour’s Lisa Nandy condemned the move this morning. “I’ve got constituents who make mistakes on their claim for Universal Credit who are hit with large fines with no right of appeal,” the Shadow Foreign Secretary said. “And yet you’ve got an MP who’s been found by a committee with Tory MPs on it to have broken the parliamentary rules, to have been lobbying for a private company and using his office to do so, and not only is he complicit in these double standards but so are all of those Tories who are supporting this bid today.”

Why are Tory MPs so keen to ignore the Paterson recommendation? Because a 30-day suspension would automatically trigger a recall petition, which could result in a by-election if 10% of eligible voters in the constituency sign it. Not only that but the attempt by Tory MPs, to rescue their friend caught with his hand in the cookie jar, could have further-reaching consequences. The new committee of nine MPs, mostly appointed by the government, would be tasked with proposing changes to the standards committee system. In other words, the Tories will overthrow the ruling of an independent inquiry into lobbying and rig the process for investigating MPs for the future. Quite a contrast to how they handled the recent Rob Roberts case, when they threw up their hands and said nothing could be done to ensure the MP faced a recall petition.

Parliament will vote on the amendment shortly after Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon, which will see Angela Rayner go up against Johnson as Keir Starmer is still self-isolating. As well as the standards row, we could see them discuss the climate emergency as Johnson returns from COP26 today. The Prime Minister will want to paint a picture of cautious optimism, but this will be a tough ask with Joe Biden lashing out at China and Russia and Johnson himself saying there is a “long way to go” before returning to Westminster.