Harriet Harman seeks sleaze watchdog role after chairing Johnson probe

The senior Labour parliamentarian has thrown her hat in the ring to replace party colleague Chris Bryant as chair of the Commons Standards Committee.
Senior Labour MP Harriet is bidding to become the next chair of the Standards Committee (Niall Carson/PA)
PA Archive
Dominic McGrath7 September 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Harriet Harman, the veteran Labour MP who chaired the probe that ruled Boris Johnson had lied to MPs over partygate, is now bidding to head up a key sleaze watchdog in Parliament.

The senior Labour parliamentarian has thrown her hat in the ring to replace party colleague Chris Bryant as chair of the Commons Standards Committee.

It comes after Mr Bryant was appointed shadow minister for creative industries and digital by Sir Keir Starmer.

Ms Harman confirmed that she was seeking election to the role on Thursday.

In a post on Twitter, now known as X, she thanked Mr Bryant for his “leadership of Parliament’s Committee on Standards”.

“There’s now a vacancy for Chair. I am putting my name forward for election.”

Ms Harman chaired the seven-person cross-party Privileges Committee inquiry into Mr Johnson, which in June found that the former prime minister had committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament by deliberately misleading the Commons with his partygate denials.

The powerful Committee on Standards works alongside the Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards to oversee MPs’ conduct and make decisions on individual complaints.

Commons rules mean the chair of the Standards Committee must come from the Opposition, so Mr Bryant’s successor has to be a Labour MP elected in a secret ballot of the House.

Ms Harman has already confirmed that she plans to stand down at the next election, after nearly 40 years as an MP.

It means that if successful she will be in the role until the Prime Minister calls the next election, expected before January 2025.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in