Boris Johnson has set out plans to ban MPs from working as paid political consultants or lobbyists in the wake of Westminster's sleaze row.
In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the prime minister said there was a need to ensure rules for MPs are "up to date, effective and appropriately rigorous".
Mr Johnson said he believed the code of conduct for MPs should be updated in order to ensure their work "continues to command the confidence of the public".
The prime minister's intervention comes two weeks after he encouraged his Conservative MPs to save one of their colleagues, ex-cabinet minister Owen Paterson, from an immediate commons suspension over a breach of lobbying rules.
A resulting outcry over the actions of Mr Johnson and Tory MPs' prompted a swift government U-turn. But the prime minister has yet to stem further accusations of Westminster sleaze in fresh scrutiny of MPs' outside earnings following the furore over Mr Paterson.
There have also been signs that the continuing sleaze row has caused political harm to both the prime minister and the Conservative Party, with Labour having pulled ahead of the Tories in recent opinion polls.
In his letter to Sir Lindsay on Tuesday, Mr Johnson gave his backing to suggested reforms by a 2018 report from the committee on standards in public life, which advises Downing Street on arrangements for upholding ethical standards of conduct among public servants.
The committee's proposed reforms included updating the code of conduct to state that MPs' outside earnings "should be within reasonable limits and should not prevent them from fully carrying out their range of duties".
As part of the Westminster sleaze row, Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has been criticised after he was revealed to have voted by proxy in the commons while undertaking lucrative legal work in the Caribbean.
Mr Johnson also supported the report's recommendation to update the code of conduct to ban MPs from "any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant".
The prime minister wrote in his letter: "Adopting these specific recommendations would ensure that MPs who are neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities.
"They would also ban MPs from exploiting their positions by acting as a paid political consultants or lobbyists."
Mr Paterson, who has since resigned as an MP, was found to have breached lobbying rules during his £110,000 per year consultancy work for Randox, a clinical diagnostics company, and Lynn's Country Foods, a meat processor and distributor.
In his letter, Mr Johnson added it was "a matter of regret" that the commons had "not yet taken forward these specific recommendations" of the 2018 report and said the government "would like to see them adopted as a matter of urgency".
He also set out his belief that changes to MPs' code of conduct "must be done on the basis of a cross-party consensus" in the commons.
The prime minister's letter was released just minutes before Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was due to speak at a news conference to set out his party's own plans in the wake of the Westminster sleaze scandal.
Labour had aimed to force a commons vote on Wednesday on a motion to end MPs' paid directorships and commercial consultancies.
Sir Keir said on Tuesday he would need to "look carefully" at the prime minister's proposals.
"If he is accepting the motion in full then that's a significant victory for us in our work to clean up politics," the Labour leader added.
Subscribe to the All Out Politics podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
Speaking to broadcasters later, Sir Keir said: "I rather hope that all my press conferences are this successful, that whilst I'm making a demand of the prime minister, he concedes, caves in."
He added: "What I want to see from the prime minister now is him following through and ensuring that his MPs vote for this tomorrow so we can have that binding decision of the house and move forward.
"We've had two weeks of corruption and sleaze. Let's follow through and let's see that vote go through tomorrow."
Questions arose about how far the recommendations supported by the prime minister would impact on MPs' other work.
The 2018 report found that a "handful of MPs" held parliamentary advisory and consultancy roles, and that there was a "small number of cases... where the public and media reaction to outside interests of MPs suggest that reasonable limits... have been breached".
Dr Hannah White, from the Institute for Government think-tank and who previously worked for the committee on standards in public life, said the "key" to the prime minister's plans would be the definition of "paid political consultants or lobbyists".
"Is a former minister who has knowledge of a policy area allowed to take an advisory role (as long as no paid advocacy) because that isn't 'just' parliamentary strategy?" she asked.
"Will it be up to the parliamentary commissioner for standards to determine what 'reasonable limits' on outside activity means?
"To date MPs have argued its up to them to determine how they fulfil their role - so who can decide if they are fulfilling 'their range of duties'?"
Earlier on Tuesday, the government completed its U-turn in the row over Mr Paterson as MPs formally backed the findings against him.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicmh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2JvcmlzLWpvaG5zb24tYmFja3MtYmFuLW9uLW1wcy1sb2JieWluZy13b3JrLWluLXdha2Utb2Ytd2VzdG1pbnN0ZXItc2xlYXplLXJvdy0xMjQ3MDE0MNIBdmh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2FtcC9ib3Jpcy1qb2huc29uLWJhY2tzLWJhbi1vbi1tcHMtbG9iYnlpbmctd29yay1pbi13YWtlLW9mLXdlc3RtaW5zdGVyLXNsZWF6ZS1yb3ctMTI0NzAxNDA?oc=5
2021-11-16 16:07:30Z
1163625258
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar