Owen Paterson broke lobbying rules. To save him, those rules are being rewritten. That looks likely to further undermine trust in politicians—and the Tories
things that democratic governments are not supposed to do. They are not supposed to change the rules of the game at the last minute because they are going to lose. They are not supposed to make it easier to take money for favours. They are not supposed to forces to do things that make them hang their heads in shame. Yet on November 3rd Boris Johnson’s government did all this and more. The father of the House, Peter Bottomley, declared that he could not in conscience vote with his party.
The report brought a furious rebuttal from Mr Paterson and a fusillade of complaints from his friends in Parliament and the media. They accused the standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, of bias against Tories, particularly Brexiteers, of having used the two-year-long inquiry to torment Mr Paterson and, in theIf the Tories disagreed with the verdict, they could have voted to reject the report or reduce Mr Paterson’s suspension.
Instead, Mr Paterson’s supporters criticised the process. Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the house, argued that it had denied him the right of appeal as required by “natural justice”, a phrase he and other Tories used with the reverence of Thomist scholars. In fact, the system offers several chances for reconsideration—the standards committee can reject the commissioner’s report and even if it does not, the House of Commons has final say.
Whatever the current system’s failings, the government’s plan looks worse. The new committee will dispense with the independent commissioner and will consist entirely ofs will not sit on it.
The current system is itself the product of sleaze: the cash-for-questions imbroglio in 1994 and the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009. Yet the government is now dismantling it to wish away another money-related scandal. Almost a quarter of the 59 backbenchers who signed Dame Andrea’s amendment had previously been found in breach of parliamentary standards.
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