Cabinet ministers last night condemned Boris Johnson’s handling of the sleaze row that has engulfed the government as the Speaker prepared to step in to clean up politics.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle is expected to intervene tomorrow after Sir John Major, the former prime minister, described the government as “politically corrupt” and said it had trashed the reputation of parliament. Major, whose government was itself undermined by sleaze rows, said he would face a “dilemma” about whether he would vote Conservative at the next election.
Hoyle is understood to be furious with the government for bringing parliament into disrepute after it whipped MPs to block the suspension of the Tory MP Owen Paterson, 65, who was found to have breached lobbying rules, and to create a new standards body with a built-in Conservative majority. Johnson U-turned the next day.
Cabinet ministers turned on the prime minister over his handling of the affair, which one described as a “toxic mess”.
Another said: “The optics of it were not good. It was not a good look.” A third said: “I don’t mind getting punched but didn’t expect to then lose the fight ... It was a shambles.”
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Today Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of being “corrupt” and “leading his troops through the sewer”. The Labour leader echoed Major by saying that the prime minister had “trashed” the reputation of British democracy.
“Instead of upholding standards, he ordered his MPs to protect his mate and rip up the whole system — that is corrupt, it is contemptible and it’s not a one-off,” Starmer told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One.
A Labour frontbencher said for the first time that the prime minister should consider resigning. Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow Commons leader, said she hoped Johnson “considers his position this weekend”.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said that Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, should quit because his position was untenable.
Many Tory backbenchers, particularly those in the “red wall” seats that helped to propel Johnson to power in 2019, are also furious. One suggested they were already “sharpening their quill” to write a letter of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee. The Speaker is now expected to bring forward proposals to set up an independent review of the parliamentary standards committee. It is understood that retired clerks may be approached to lead it after Jonathan Evans, the former head of MI5 and chairman of the committee on standards in public life, was ruled out of the running.
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The review will consider creating an appeals process, akin to the one available to MPs accused of harassment. It is also likely consider whether MPs should be allowed second jobs.
Hoyle’s intervention will probably follow tomorrow’s emergency debate when Labour is expected to call on the prime minister to rule out giving Paterson a peerage.
Starmer has written to Lord Bew, chairman of the Lords appointments commission, seeking his reassurance that it would be blocked.
“It is my opinion — and the opinion of the Labour Party — that such an action would undermine confidence in the probity of parliament,” he wrote.
Johnson is facing calls for an investigation into reports of a “cash for votes” scandal after claims last week that Conservative MPs were told they would lose government funding if they failed to support the overhaul of the complaints system.
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Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has written to Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, demanding an inquiry into whether the government had “misused public funds to try to get their own MP off the hook”.
It can also be revealed that Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who presided over the Paterson investigation, has been give police protection after receiving death threats.
A source close to Stone said “She has had some really awful threats ... During this process she has been likened to [the Conservative MP] David Amess’s murderer and the IRA. People have accused her of killing Paterson’s wife [who took her own life] and all that kind of crap.”
Paterson made the decision to quit the Commons after Johnson’s U-turn. There will be a by-election in his former constituency of North Shropshire next month. It understood that on Friday, Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrats’ chief whip, called Martin Bell, the former independent MP, offering him the opportunity to stand as their candidate.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, defended Johnson. He told Phillips on Sky News: “I think what we’ve seen is a sort of Westminster storm in a teacup, if I may say so. Yes, we made a mistake in bringing that forward in the way that we did so we withdrew it, but the overall principle — that you should have due process and a right of appeal in these types of situations — I don’t think anybody doubts.”
