A cabinet minister has expressed regret and admitted it was a mistake to try to spare a Tory MP from suspension by ripping up the standards system in a move that sparked a huge backlash from colleagues and the public. Steve Barclay, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, avoided directly apologising, but sought to heal the huge rift between Downing Street and both backbench Conservatives and senior ministers, who are still furious at the government’s actions last week.
After being hauled to the Commons to speak in an emergency debate called by the Liberal Democrats over the prime minister’s bid to protect Owen Paterson, Barclay conceded it was wrong to try to change the standards process at the same time. He admitted: “While sincerely held concerns clearly warrant further attention, the manner in which the government approached last week conflated them with the response to an individual case.” Boris Johnson avoided the debate, leading opposition MPs to accuse the prime minister of “adding insult to injury”. Tory MPs were also indignant that he avoided facing their wrath, after directing them to back an amendment to Paterson’s suspension that many thought was wrong but which narrowly passed by 18 votes. The government made a U-turn the following day and committed to rescinding the amendment. But it is being urged to bring back the original motion to endorse the report on Paterson, who has since stood down as an MP. Earlier, the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, admitted Johnson’s bid to spare Paterson showed parliament at its worst. He said the Commons “needs to find a different way forward”, after opposition parties vowed to boycott the new committee chaired by a Tory MP created to review the standards processes. “If the house wishes to review the system, it must do so on a cross-party basis,” Hoyle said. He said: “I don’t think the house has been its best in the way it handled the standards issues over the last week,” adding that the public had “certainly seen it at its worst”.
Johnson was branded a “tinpot dictator” who was “mired in sleaze” by Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP, while the Lib Dems’ Wendy Chamberlain, who led the debate, said the government had “attempted to rig the system to cover their own backs”. She added that the prime minister “thinks the rules don’t apply to him” and that he had “tarnished this house’s reputation”. Barclay did not commit to the government rescinding its plans for reforming the standards system and endorsing the standards committee’s report into Paterson before the Commons breaks up for recess on Wednesday. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, accused Johnson of having “damaged our democracy” and tried to paint his denigration of probity in public life as a “pattern of behaviour”. “When the prime minister gives the green light to corruption, he corrodes that trust,” Starmer said. “Rather than repairing the damage he’s done, the prime minister is running scared; when required to lead, he’s chosen to hide. His strategy is to devalue the rules so they don’t matter to anyone any more and to go after those charged with enforcing the rules, so that breaking the rules has less consequence.” Starmer said he was willing to work cross-party to reform the standards system, but insisted: “We are not willing to work with the government on their plan to weaken standards.” Labour has long called for MPs to be banned from taking paid directorships and consultancy roles, Starmer said, and added: “It’s time to put that right.” He also called the business appointments committee “too weak” to clamp down on the “revolving door” that means ministers can move from regulating a company to working for the firm once they have left office. Starmer took aim at Johnson’s absence from the debate, saying: “If there’s an apology to be made, that apology should come from the top, just as the direction came from the top last week to engage in this business in the first place.” He also said it was “completely unacceptable” that Tory MP Rob Roberts escaped facing a possible byelection, despite having been found to have sexually harassed a member of staff. Starmer urged the government to close the “loophole” in the rules so that a recall petition could be launched against Roberts.