Boris Johnson has proposed banning MPs from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists in an attempt to close down a sleaze scandal that has dominated Westminster politics for the last fortnight.
The UK prime minister made the announcement on Twitter, just as Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour party, was about to start a press conference to lay out similar plans.
Starmer had proposed putting forward a motion in the House of Commons on Wednesday that would ban MPs from doing second jobs on the side, with some “very limited” exceptions.
Johnson said in his tweet that he had written to the Commons’ Speaker to propose cross-party reforms to the standards system in Parliament.
The prime minister’s recommendations include an update to the MPs’ code of conduct and a ban on MPs working as paid consultants or lobbyists. He said it was important that MPs who prioritise outside interests over their constituents should be “investigated and appropriately punished”.
But Johnson’s proposals do not rule out MPs taking up paid directorships or acting as consultants on matters that are not deemed political. One well-placed Whitehall official pointed out there was “an awful lot of wriggle room on what defines political consultancy”.
Johnson himself has received £4.3m from outside interests while an elected politician, but this has been through speeches and books rather than through advisory work.
The prime minister’s intervention would appear to have derailed Starmer’s attempt to seize the political initiative with his demand to stop the “revolving door” between government and companies regulated by the state.
Starmer said he would need to see the details but said that if the Labour motion was effectively being accepted by Johnson it was “a very important victory for the Labour party”.
Westminster has been convulsed by a sleaze scandal since Tory MPs two weeks ago voted, at the behest of Johnson, to overhaul the system of parliamentary standards.
The Parliamentary manoeuvre was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to rescue Owen Paterson, a colleague who the parliamentary standards watchdog found had broken lobbying rules in an “egregious case of paid advocacy”.
After an embarrassing government U-turn led to Paterson’s resignation, the focus of media scrutiny shifted to second jobs held by other Tory MPs, including Sir Geoffrey Cox. The former attorney-general has come under scrutiny over his role advising a tax haven.
Theresa May, the former Tory prime minister, accused Johnson of “damaging parliament” during a Commons debate on the issue on Tuesday afternoon.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, admitted on Tuesday that the attempt to rescue Paterson was a “serious mistake”. Speaking on the ConservativeHome podcast, Rees-Mogg said he had personally encouraged the prime minister “to go down this route, and I was wrong. I made a mistake.”
Asked by a Labour MP in the Commons later how the government had misjudged the situation, Rees-Mogg said ministers had been swayed by the suicide of Paterson’s wife.
The independent Committee on Standards in Public Life in 2018 recommended a ban on MPs from certain types of work, including lobbying.
It said: “The Code of Conduct for MPs and Guide to the Rules should be updated to state: MPs should not accept any paid work to provide services as a Parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant, for example, advising on Parliamentary affairs or on how to influence Parliament and its members.”
Johnson backs ban on political consulting roles for UK MPs
Pinoy Variant