Boris Johnson’s Tories have no shame.
On Wednesday, they circled the wagons to do what comes naturally to them – avoid taking responsibility and protecting their own – in a brazen attempt to spare disgraced MP Owen Paterson from facing the consequences of a clear breach of lobbying rules.
It was the sort of commendably idiotic course-of-action for which Johnson’s Tories are now famed – they would change the rules because the rules didn’t suit them – and a firm twos-up to whatever remained of the expectation of basic ethical standards in Westminster.
But that was nowhere near as on-brand as what came next.
After the inevitable public backlash, preceded by a general curdling of whatever goodwill remained among parliamentarians, Boris realised he wasn’t going to get away with it.
And after muddying the waters with disingenuous arguments about the lack of an appeals process, as well as marching ministers onto breakfast television to defend what amounted to voting to change the rules because they didn’t like them, the Tories threw their man to the wolves anyway.
The Government has now performed its latest U-turn and Owen Paterson has announced he will be stepping down from the cruel world of politics which, for a lobbyist, means he’ll be stepping up into boardrooms in the City.
Given the horrific murder of Sir David Amess only a fortnight ago and taking into consideration the fact Owen Paterson is himself mourning the loss of his wife – who tragically took her own life last year – it’s important to keep the criticism within certain non-inflammatory bounds.
So here goes. Paterson was found to have made several approaches to government departments on behalf of two private companies that were paying him more than his £82,000-a-year parliamentary salary.
By attempting to place him above the rules, the Tories were prepared to set the latest in a long line of worrying precedents which point to a vertical freefall in parliamentary standards and a dangerous
accountability gap at the heart of British democracy.
They were not even protecting him. They were covering their own backsides, as more than a few of the members who supported changing the rules on those benches are themselves lobbyists.
How is lobbying even a thing? Why is this even allowed?
By seeking to change the rules to get their man out of a tight spot, the Tories have unwittingly widened the political debris-field, bringing the institution of parliament itself into disrepute – once again.
Lobbying rules in the UK are stitched-up so dishonourably that even being found not to have broken them does not necessarily mean you can be assumed to have behaved ethically – that is the moral hazard around which this house of cards is constructed.
For some, this revolving door between the worlds of politics and business is seen as a legitimate career, when it’s as good as cancer to the democratic process and whatever faith people still have in it.
Only months ago, David Cameron was hauled in front of a select committee for trying to cash in on the pandemic on at least 47 occasions.
Billions in public contracts have been handed to friends and associates of government ministers throughout the pandemic – many not even subject to the usual rules of competition.
Paterson’s actions are not the real issue here and never were.
The issue is the self-enriching double-agentry so commonplace in politics, incentivised by soft-touch rules which act as an open invitation to anyone with enough of a brass neck to unashamedly line their own pockets behind a veil of public service.
