Keir Starmer has accused the Conservative government of “corruption” after it whipped its MPs last night to vote to overhaul the system for policing MPs’ conduct. This let a former cabinet minister and Carrie Johnson’s former boss, Owen Paterson, off the hook, at least for the time being, after he was found to have broken lobbying rules by the independent standards committee.
The immediate plans to overhaul the system have since been ditched following outcry and disquiet among Conservative MPs this morning. “We have started a fire and we have no idea how to put the fire out or which direction it will burn in,” Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP who voted against the move, told Tim this morning before the U-turn was announced. He, despite voting against government orders, had already observed his inbox fill with anger from constituents. “What a disgusting bunch of immoral low lives you are,” read one message Mills received on Wednesday 3 November.
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