Critics hit out at effort to ‘weaken independent scrutiny’ with Keir Starmer saying Owen Paterson ‘not fit to serve as MP’
Boris Johnson tore up the independent system for combating sleaze in parliament on Wednesday as he threw the government’s weight behind protecting a Conservative MP who was found to have repeatedly breached lobbying rules.
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, accused the prime minister of corruption after Johnson whipped his MPs to halt Owen Paterson’s parliamentary suspension and demand a review of the entire standards process to allow for appeals.