Sleaze debate: Sir Keir Starmer accuses Boris Johnson of ‘damaging our democracy’ over Owen Paterson row

Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson had ‘erroded trust’ in politics
PA
Daniel Keane8 November 2021

Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of “damaging our democracy” over the Owen Paterson sleaze row.

He urged MPs to resist the Government’s “politics of cynicism”.

The Labour leader told the House of Commons the prime minister had “corroded” trust in the political system by attempting to overhaul rules on parliamentary standards to help the former Cabinet Minister.

He told MPs at an emergency debate on Monday Mr Johnson was “running scared” after he chose not to defend his Government’s actions at the dispatch box.

Sir Keir said: “His concern as always is self-preservation, not the national interest. We will not stand by while he trashes our democracy.

“The prime minister should have told Mr Paterson that the right thing to do was accept his punishment. His duty of care and basic decency demanded that.

“Instead the British people were let down, and Mr Paterson was let down - used in an extraordinary attack on our commissioner for standards.”

Elsewhere, Sir Keir said the row formed part of a “pattern of behaviour” by Mr Johnson.

“This is the prime minister’s way of doing business,” he added. “He knows that the rules apply to him, but his strategy is to devalue those rules so that they don’t matter to anyone.

“That way politics becomes contaminated, and cynicism replaces confidence and trust. The prime minister hopes to drag us all into the gutter with him.”

Meanwhile, Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay offered an apology for the “manner” in which the amendment was brought forward last week.

He told the Commons: “I would like to express my regret and that of my ministerial colleagues over the mistake made last week.

“We recognise that there are concerns across the house over the standards system… Yet while sincerely held concerns clearly warrant further attention, the manner in which the government approached last week’s debate conflated them with the response to an individual case.”

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, making a statement ahead of the emergency debate, said any changes to the standards system must be done with cross-party support.

In his concluding remarks ahead of the debate, he told MPs: “I granted this debate today because I thought it was essential to sort out the mess we’re in.”

Wendy Chamberlain, the chief whip for the Liberal Democrats, said the affair had “tarnished Parliament’s reputation”.

She told the Commons: “Most of the time I am proud to represent my constituency... It is hard to be proud to be an MP when we are tarnished by the government’s behaviour.

“What gives the government the right to change the rules when the decision doesn’t suit them?”

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