With pressure growing on the Government over the crisis, Boris Johnson on Wednesday refused again to apologise but was forced to address concerns over MPs’ conduct by insisting “Britain is not remotely a corrupt country”.
In his first remarks on the scandal, Mr Sunak told Sky News: “Just reflecting over recent events, I think for us as a government, it’s fair to say that we need to do better than we did last week, and we know that.” The Chancellor’s intervention came as:
The former Attorney General and Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox was hit with new claims that he has earned around £6 million from outside work as a lawyer since 2009.
He is already under intense scrutiny over allegations he used his MPs’ office to conduct a virtual hearing while representing the government of the British Virgin islands (BVI) — work which will earn him more than £800,000.
He denies he breached the rules but now faces an inquiry by Parliament’s Standards watchdog.
Lord Jonathan Evans, ex-head of MI5 and chairman of the Committee for Standards in Public Life, warned MPs that they need to put their constituents first. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today show, he said: “If somebody is spending a huge amount of their time on a second job, then they can’t be maintaining support for their constituents.”
Business Minister Paul Scully said he understood how the controversy over MPs’ standards looked to the public. “It is really regrettable that we’ve got to this situation,” he said.
The Cabinet was meeting in Westminster on Thursday to try and shift the focus back to its central levelling-up agenda as it enters a second week of fighting off allegations over sleaze.
Labour accused Mr Johnson of having “something rotten at the heart” of his party as they published analysis which showed Tory MPs have received more than £1.7 million in consultancy fees since the start of 2021.
Sir Geoffrey has become the focal point for the wider storm over the way MPs use second jobs to boost their annual £82,000 parliamentary salaries.
Analysis by the Guardian showed that he had earned nearly £6 million from his work as a barrister in the last 11 years.
Separately, the ex-parliamentary Standards Commissioner Sir Alistair Graham criticised Sir Geoffrey after the Mirror published claims he was renting out a flat he owns in Battersea while claiming taxpayer-funded expenses to cover rent at a second London property.
The practice is not banned under Parliamentary rules but raised fresh questions over his conduct. Sir Alistair said: “If they have got a flat in London, they should be happy enough to use that rather than go through this device to gain somewhere else and build up extra income.”
Sir Geoffrey issued a statement yesterday insisting his work on a corruption inquiry on behalf of the BVI government had been approved by the Attorney General.
He added that the Chief Whip Mark Spencer had agreed to let him vote by proxy while he was on a trip to the Caribbean island earlier this year.
The Standards Watchdog Kathryn Stone has been asked by Labour to investigate further claims that Sir Geoffrey used his parliamentary office to participate in a virtual hearing on September 14.
The controversy over MPs’ second jobs was triggered by the Government’s botched handling of the Owen Paterson lobbying furore last week.
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