BORIS Johnson has proposed banning MPs from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists as he tries to stem the tide of sleaze allegations engulfing is Tory party.
The Prime Minister also called for the House of Commons code of conduct to be updated and for MPs who fail to focus on their constituents to be “investigated and appropriately punished”.
The SNP has criticised the PM’s “shoddy, half-baked proposals”, adding that “they wouldn't begin to scratch the surface of dealing with the huge problem of Tory sleaze, cronyism and corruption that has engulfed Westminster”.
Mr Johnson outlined the plans as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was due to detail his bid to force a potentially damaging vote for the Government on taking action to tackle sleaze.
Sir Keir said Mr Johnson had been “dragged kicking and screaming” to his new position.
He said: “We’ve had two weeks of Tory sleaze and corruption. Be under no illusion, the Prime Minister has only done this because his back was against the wall because the Labour Party have put down a binding vote for tomorrow.
“This is a significant victory for the Labour Party, it would not have happened if we hadn’t put down that binding vote. This is a Prime Minister who has shown no leadership on this whatsoever.
“It is a step forward for standards in public life.”
The Labour leader said Mr Johnson had “caved in” adding that he wanted the Prime Minister to ensure Tory MPs voted for the new measures on Wednesday.
“I have read through his letter, it is very obviously a concession to our vote tomorrow, it’s in exactly the same terms as the binding vote tomorrow. This is a Prime Minister that has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to do anything on standards in public life.”
Detailing his plans in a letter to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Prime Minister said they would ensure MPs who are “neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities”.
“They would also ban MPs from exploiting their positions by acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists,” Mr Johnson added.
The move is an attempt to draw a line under the damaging saga that began with Mr Johnson’s bid to overhaul the disciplinary system to prevent the immediate suspension of Tory MP Owen Paterson.
The Prime Minister was forced to U-turn on that plan and the Conservative former minister resigned as the MP for North Shropshire as a vote was rescheduled to ban him from the Commons for six weeks for breaching lobbying rules.
Mr Johnson’s latest plans came a day ahead of Labour staging a vote to ban MPs from taking paid consultancies or directorships during an opposition day debate on Wednesday.
The Government and Conservative backbenchers would have found themselves in the difficult position of having to either back Labour’s plans or face allegations they were not stamping out sleaze.
SNP Westminster deputy leader, Kirsten Oswald, said: "The Tory corruption scandal has demonstrated that the broken Westminster system needs a complete overhaul and wholesale reform.
"Boris Johnson has published these shoddy, half-baked proposals to distract media scrutiny from his government - but the reality is they wouldn't begin to scratch the surface of dealing with the huge problem of Tory sleaze, cronyism and corruption that has engulfed Westminster.”
She added: "These minor adjustments would do nothing to end the corrupt practice of parties handing peerages to millionaire donors. They wouldn't stop Boris Johnson breaking the ministerial code and letting himself off the hook.
"They wouldn't prevent the Prime Minister soliciting dodgy donations for luxury holidays and home refurbishments. They wouldn't stop Tory ministers giving special access, contracts, tax breaks and government jobs to their friends. And they wouldn't even ensure Tory MPs treat their roles as a full time job.
"People in Scotland are looking on in horror at what is going on in Westminster. The best future for Scotland is to become an independent country and escape Westminster for good."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel