The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 2GM 7

News

Downing Street has bowed to pressure

and will completely reverse an over-

haul of the standards system voted for

by MPs last week.

It confirmed the U-turn last night.

Boris Johnson had attempted to spare

Owen Paterson a 30-day suspension

for paid lobbying by setting up a new

committee with a Tory majority. The

attempt to quash the suspension of the

MP for North Shropshire failed after a

rebellion among MPs, and Paterson

was forced to resign amid public outcry.

The government said it would lay a

motion on Monday that would rescind

the formation of the new committee,

rubber-stamp the original report on

Paterson’s lobbying and acknowledge

his resignation. It is expected to pass

without a vote.

A spokesman for the prime minister

said: “We recognise the strong views on

this particular point, and, having

listened to those again yesterday

afternoon, we will table a motion

tonight for next week to formalise the

change of approach by unpicking the

amendment.”

Chris Bryant, a Labour MP and

chairman of the standards committee

that originally recommended the

30-day suspension, said: “It’s a shame

we’ve had to go through all this, but we

are finally getting there.”

John Whittingdale, the former cul-

ture secretary, was due to be chairman

of the Tory-majority committee set up

by Johnson. He said in a Commons de-

bate on sleaze this week that he had

been left “in something of a dilemma”,

since the government had yet to unpick

the legislation it had already passed.

“I agreed to chair it on the basis that

Rayner seeks investigation

of Covid tests contract

George Greenwood, Billy Kenber cabinet secretary, and Chris Wormald,

the permanent secretary at the Depart-

ment of Health, if they would be

“opening an investigation into this

matter to get to the bottom of what

happened and any wrongdoing that has

occurred”. Rayner said in the letter that

it was “absolutely vital that there is total

transparency” and called for the

publication of all correspondence and

the minutes of all meetings involving

Brine and Sigma.

In a recording of the video confer-

ence posted online, Brine described

Zahawi as his “good friend”. The minis-

ter, who is now the education secretary,

thanked Brine for inviting him. No

lobbying took place, but critics said the

webinar showed the kinds of benefits

that private companies could enjoy

when hiring an MP as an adviser, and

risked the perception of cronyism in the

awarding of government contracts.

Brine, 47, a former health minister

who has been the MP for Winchester

since 2010, insisted yesterday that he

was not a lobbyist and said he had no

role in the awarding of the contract.

Bharat Shah, the founder of Sigma, also

said Brine was an adviser, not a lobbyist.

the course of the day, all of which Cox

took part in. About two hours into the

BVI hearing he left his desk for 20 min-

utes, later telling the hearing’s chair-

man: “Forgive my absence during some

of the morning. I’m afraid the bell went

off.” This was an apparent reference to

the division bell that indicates when

votes in the House of Commons are

taking place.

The Foreign Office inquiry aims to

establish whether there is evidence of

“corruption, abuse of office or other

serious dishonesty that has taken place

in public office” in the BVI.

The hearing came the day after Cox’s

sole contribution to a Commons debate

since Johnson sacked him as attorney-

general in February last year.

In other developments yesterday the

Metropolitan Police said it was “consid-

ering” demands to begin an investi-

gation of allegations of “cash for hon-

ours” linked to Conservative nomina-

tions to the House of Lords. Pete

Wishart, an SNP MP, wrote to Dame

Cressida Dick this week to raise

“potential criminal misconduct”

following a Sunday Times Insight in-

vestigation.

A Met spokesman said it had “re-

ceived correspondence relating to

recent media reports concerning the

awarding of peerages. At this time, we

are considering the contents.”

Time to reform shabby House of Lords,

Alice Thomson, page 25

News

spoke out on gambling reforms

Johnson reverses his

standards overhaul

after Paterson affair

George Grylls Political Reporter it would be a cross-party committee

that would have support from both

sides of the House. It appears that that

is not possible,” he said. “I would not

wish to chair a committee that had

support from only one side, but I am not

clear what is the status of the commit-

tee, given that the motion that the

House passed last week, as I under-

stand it, is still in place.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons

Speaker, said that the sleaze scandal

risked creating the perception that the

country had become a “dictatorship”.

He told Times Radio that it was his

“job and duty” to protect parliament’s

reputation but conceded the past week

had damaged public faith in politics.

Asked if trust in parliament had been

eroded by Johnson’s attempt to spare

Paterson, he said: “Well, if we haven’t

got democracy, we’re a dictatorship.

And that’s one thing that we are not

going to become. That’s why it’s my job

and duty to protect parliament, and to

protect it to ensure the rights of MPs.”

Hoyle praised Conservative MPs

elected in 2019 who defied the govern-

ment whip last week, saying: “It’s taken

a lot of the new members to stand up.

There are older members who’ve

spoken. But young members express-

ing their views and saying to the old

guard, you’ve got this wrong. And that’s

good for democracy.”

During the debate on sleaze, Con-

servative members of the standards

committee elected in 2019 criticised the

government’s handling of the affair.

Andy Carter, the Tory MP for

Warrington South, said that it was

important for the committee to retain

its independence and criticised the

government’s attempt to install a one-

Islands in a corruption inquiry. In a video he appeared to be participating in the inquiry from his office in the Commons party majority on a new committee.

Profile

W

hen

Geoffrey

Cox

sprang on

to the political scene

in 2018, quoting

Milton and the

Rolling Stones in a

booming baritone

from the Conservative

conference stage, his

was a new face and

name even to

Westminster

obsessives (Henry

Zeffman writes).

Many Conservative

MPs confessed that

before Cox was asked

to be Theresa May’s

warm-up act for her

speech, they knew

little about him. At

that point he had been

attorney-general for

only three months but

had been an MP for

13 years. Unlike many

colleagues, Cox had

little time for the

Commons tearooms

and bars because he

was continuing his

busy practice as one of

Britain’s leading

barristers.

As attorney-general

he made clear that he

saw his legal standing

as paramount. Asked

to advise on whether

EU concessions to

May had diminished

the legal risk of

Britain being stuck in

the Northern Irish

backstop, he said they

had not, even while

urging MPs to back

May’s Brexit deal. “My

professional

reputation is far more

important to me than

my reputation as a

politician,” he said.

Born in the

Wiltshire village of

Wroughton in 1960,

Cox attended the

private King’s College

in Taunton before

reading law and

classics at Downing

College, Cambridge.

He was called to the

Bar in 1982 and took

silk in 2003. After

taking the large rural

seat of Torridge &

West Devon from the

Lib Dems at the

second attempt in

2005 he became an

outspoken critic of the

Labour government

but was overlooked for

ministerial office by

David Cameron and

returned to the courts

with new enthusiasm.

Only the promise of

the job of attorney-

general could coax

him onto the front

bench. Cox endorsed

Boris Johnson’s 2019

leadership bid and was

kept on in the role. He

was sacked in the

February 2020

reshuffle (and later

knighted), leaving him

free again to pursue a

busy legal life. The

question facing Cox,

Johnson and MPs is

whether the rules

allowing him to do so

remain fit for use.

Labour has asked the cabinet secretary

to investigate a coronavirus contract

issued to a company that retains a

Conservative MP as an adviser.

The Times revealed yesterday that

Steve Brine was paid £20,000 a year for

up to eight hours’ work a month as a

“strategic adviser” to Sigma Pharma-

ceuticals. In February he took part in a

video conference with Sigma and Nad-

him Zahawi, the vaccines minister at

the time. In April the company won a

£100,000 government contract to de-

liver lateral-flow tests to pharmacies.

Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the

Labour Party, asked Simon Case, the

Steve Brine’s role was raised by Angela

Rayner in a letter to top civil servants