Boris Johnson’s effort to get Owen Paterson off the hook was so crude even his cheerleaders turned against him. The electorate will follow
Corruption, chaos and calamitous party misjudgment finally led to Owen Paterson’s resignation over breaking lobbying rules. Boris Johnson’s blatant attempt to put himself in control of parliamentary standards, abolishing an independent system that was investigating Paterson, caused well over 100 of his own MPs to rebel. There is sympathy for Paterson. He is a man still mourning the loss of his wife, a fact he referenced in his resignation letter. But the trajectory of today’s events appears to have had little to do with that sympathy or to suggest particular regard for Paterson personally: it’s reported that he was never even warned of the U-turn that ditched him.
Who forced this humiliating reverse? What fright sent the wretched Jacob Rees-Mogg out to eat an unfamiliar dollop of humble pie? Following a wave of anger from within his own party and renewed cries of “Tory sleaze”, the prime minister abandoned plans to overhaul the parliamentary standards system – one that had just found the former Northern Ireland secretary in breach of parliamentary rules by lobbying for companies that were paying him over £100,000 a year.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
