Boris Johnson has sought to regain the initiative in the public debate about sleaze, standards and corruption, after a fortnight of dire headlines for the Tories, with the surprise announcement that he is backing plans to ban MPs from working as paid consultants, and to limit all second jobs for MPs to what can be done “within reasonable limits”. (See 3.56pm.) This amounts to a considerable shift from a PM who only last week was arguing that allowing MPs to have second jobs “has actually strengthened our democracy”. Johnson announced his move as Keir Starmer was holding a press conference about how Labour will put a similar proposal to a vote tomorrow and, although Starmer immediately announced that this was an important victory for his party (see 4.48pm), Johnson has at least managed to avert the threat of a Commons defeat tomorrow. The Johnson proposal actually goes slightly further than the motion proposed by Labour (see 3.56pm), but Labour has much more ambitious long-term plans, including for an eventual ban on all second jobs for MPs, with limited exceptions. (See 4.18pm.) Some 50 Tory MPs have consultancy jobs and the Johnson move is bound to make him unpopular with some of his backbenchers, some of whom may decide to quit parliament rather than face a significant loss of income. But David Cameron suffered a similar party management problem when he enforced a tough line on his MPs during the expenses scandal, and he got credit for this with voters. He also found that the clear-out of old guard MPs helped him to reshape the parliamentary party more to his liking. MPs have finally approved a report that found a Conservative former cabinet minister broke lobbying rules, ending a humiliating U-turn Boris Johnson was forced to embark on after he tried to overhaul the parliamentary standards system. The prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, has been accused of inappropriately touching a former cabinet minister as well as a senior political journalist. Caroline Nokes, who chairs the women and equalities committee, said Johnson had smacked her on the bottom in 2003, while he was in the running to be MP for Teignbridge in Devon. Ailbhe Rea, political correspondent for the New Statesman, said she was grateful to Nokes for speaking out and said Johnson had “groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019”. Asked about the Nokes allegation, Starmer said it was “serious” and should be investigated, possibly by the police. (See 4.48pm.) Returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece is a matter for the British Museum, Downing Street has said, apparently reversing longstanding UK government opposition to the idea, reiterated by Boris Johnson as recently as March. The coronavirus pandemic may have “exacerbated” the number of people self-radicalising online, the UK security minister, Damian Hinds, said in the wake of the Liverpool bombing.