Johnson faces fury over ‘anti-sleaze overhaul’

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson is trying to overhaul the UK Parliament’s anti-sleaze watchdog, after it found a member of his Conservative Party guilty of lobbying on behalf of two companies that were paying him as a consultant.
The prime minister’s office on Wednesday called for a “new appeals process” in such sleaze cases, British media shorthand for questionable actions ranging from corruption or secretive financial arrangements to scandals. The intervention came hours before a vote on the issue in the House of Commons.
Many Conservative MPs have rallied around their colleague, Owen Paterson, who faces a 30-day suspension from Parliament for the alleged breach of lobbying rules. The recommendation by the parliamentary standards committee has to be confirmed by a vote in Parliament — giving Paterson’s Tory supporters, and the government, the opportunity to intervene. But the plan triggered a strong backlash from opposition MPs.
“When they break the rules, they just remake the rules,” Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. “This isn’t about playing politics, this is about playing by the rules.”
The government’s position is especially controversial because Johnson himself has history with Parliament’s standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, who said he broke the rules over a luxury holiday to Mustique.

The standards committee, made up of MPs and lay members, later overruled that finding.
“Paid lobbying, paid advocacy in this House is wrong, and members who are found guilty of that should apologise and pay the necessary penalties — but that is not the issue in this case,” Johnson told MPs on Wednesday. The issue is whether Paterson had “a fair opportunity to make representations” and whether current rules allow for a “proper appeal,” he said.
In her investigation, Stone found that Paterson breached lobbying rules by approaching ministers and officials on behalf of two companies he worked for as a paid consultant, Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods. Paterson denies wrongdoing and said the probe was flawed because it allowed him no right to appeal or call witnesses in his defence.
If his suspension is upheld by the House of Commons, Paterson may face a by-election if enough voters in his district vote for one.
Paterson’s supporters, led by former House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, have put forward an amendment to his formal suspension that would — if passed — set up a new committee to examine the ruling against him and determine whether the standards system should give MPs new rights.