George Eustice says Tory sleaze scandal a ‘Westminster storm in a teacup’
This week’s scandal over ex-Tory MP’s Owen Paterson’s breach of lobbying rules is a “Westminster storm in a teacup”, according to environment secretary George Eustice.
However, Eustice said the government made “a mistake” in trying to overturn Paterson’s recommended suspension, for earning £100,000 a year as a private sector lobbyist, and dismantle parliament’s standards process.
He told Sky News this morning that the government would not be affected by allegations of sleaze and corruption in the long-term.
“I know you may put it to me that way, others – opposition leaders and so on, and opposition politicians – will no doubt say that, but I don’t agree,” he said.
“I’ve been up here in Glasgow at COP, where some really big decisions are being taken, big, important decisions around the world on a big challenge like climate change.
“What we’ve seen is a sort of Westminster storm in a teacup, if I may say so. Yes, we made a mistake in bringing that forward in the way that we did, so we withdrew it.”
Votes to veto Paterson’s proposed suspension and dismantle the standards process for MPs was rammed through parliament by Tory backbenchers and the government on Wednesday in a move described as “corrupt” by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Starmer also told the BBC this morning that Johnson was “leading his troops through the sewer”.
The vote was passed by Tory MPs in parliament, many of whom were under investigation by House of Commons standards commissioner Kathryn Stone themselves.
It would have seen Paterson’s case, and future cases of MPs accused of breaking parliament rules, heard by a Tory only committee, after opposition parties refused to be involved in the proposed new system.
Boris Johnson U-turned in the face of a fierce backlash just 24 hours later and Paterson was set to be suspended for not disclosing his role as a paid lobbyist.
The Tory MP then decided to resign over the growing scandal, after a chaotic 48 hours, saying he will “remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics”.
Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major, whose government was blighted by sleaze and corruption scandals, yesterday said Johnson’s handling of the Paterson case was “shameful”.
“There’s a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about their behaviour,” he told the BBC.
“It has to stop, it has to stop soon. I have been a Conservative all my life. And if I am concerned at how the government is behaving, I suspect lots of other people are as well.
“It seems to me, as a lifelong Conservative, that much of what they are doing is un-Conservative in its behaviour.”
Starmer today told the BBC: “It’s a pattern of behaviour by a prime minister who doesn’t know how to uphold standards in public life.
“I am angry because when I see the reputation of our democracy and country trashed by this Prime Minister that makes me angry.”
Parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone ruled last month that Paterson broke lobbying rules during his work for clinical diagnostics firm Randox and manufacturer Lynn’s Country Foods.
He was paid £100,000 a year by the two firms.
Paterson contacted the Food Standards Agency, a regulator, on behalf of these firms at least 10 times and did not declare his lobbying activities, according to Stone.
Paterson, a former shadow cabinet minister, claims he only contacted the Food Standards Agency to warn them about potentially harmful products and that Stone’s investigation was biased.
He also claims that the investigation played a part in his wife’s suicide last year.