Tories engulfed in sleaze crisis after U-turn and Owen Paterson resignation

Conservative MPs react with fury at ‘own goal’ after PM ditches bid to shield former minister from lobbying claims

Owen Paterson, whose case led to an attempt to overhaul parliament’s anti-sleaze regime. Boris Johnson was engulfed in a sleaze crisis following a humiliating government U-turn that saw veteran Tory MP Owen Paterson resign from parliament after Downing Street ditched a bid to shield him from lobbying claims.

The appalling behaviour has been going on in one form or another for years but we seemed to have reached some sort of crescendo- or just a local peak of overpowering self-interest and abuse.

So Johnson rallies the MPs to vote down a punishment to meted out to his ‘friend ‘ or just Brexit comrade- possibly to weaken the system of accountability in preparation for his next investigation?

Hence the cartoon:

In less than 24 hours there was a U-turn and Patterson was cast off to the wilderness. No loss there as his behaviour of lobbying for money and using Parliamentary resources for that, was clearly corrupt, no matter what the Tory MPs, ministers, colleagues were saying.

Good turn of words to paint the picture:

“Downing Street has clearly treated parliament as a populist assembly, a lapdog to executive power. That 250 Tory MPs on Wednesday night, after damning dozens of ordinary MPs such as Keith Vaz and Ian Paisley for unethical behaviour, could obey Johnson’s orders to bail out his friend is, if anything, more awful than Johnson’s own decision.“