When parliament’s all-party standards committee recommended a 30-day suspension for the Conservative MP Owen Paterson it set off a chain of events that has now mired the government in sleaze allegations. Rather than accept his punishment, Paterson and his allies came out fighting and convinced Boris Johnson to attempt to abolish the current disciplinary body altogether and re-run the process. Having forced an amendment through a furious House of Commons using the government’s majority, the prime minister was forced into retreat and ultimately Paterson resigned as an MP.
But as Jonathan Freedland tells Nosheen Iqbal, the story does not end there. Johnson himself is facing growing questions about his own personal conduct as a member of parliament alongside persistent allegations that the Conservative party rewards donations with peerages.
Yesterday, an emergency debate in the Commons heard angry opposition MPs strongly denouncing the government and an opinion poll showed that the Conservatives had lost their lead to Labour with voters. But without an election in sight, it is Boris Johnson’s own MPs whose disgruntlement may worry him the most.
Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
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