It’s the third anniversary of the lockdown birthday bash in the Commons – a party Guido revealed this summer, hosted by Commons Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing for her dear friend Anne Jenkin. Bernard Jenkin, of Liaison and Privileges Committee fame, attended the celebration. As if it were fate, on the same day three years later, it’s confirmed that Jenkin is under investigation by Parliament’s Standards Commissioner. He won’t be celebrating now…
The Met closed its investigation today, informing the partygoers that there will be no further action – something that many will consider unfairly lenient. Consequently, the Standards Commissioner can now commence its own inquiry. Last year, Jenkin voted to expel Boris Johnson from Parliament over his partygate scandal, asserting to the Privilege Committee, “the rules were clear—they were there for everyone, and no one is above the law.” Following our scoop, Boris sent Guido a statement, urging Jenkin to resign over the matter. He’ll be waiting with bated breath for the Commissioner’s conclusion…
Read the Met’s statement in full below:
Harriet Harman has been elected Chair of the Commons Standards Committee, replacing Chris Bryant after his appointment to the Shadow Cabinet. Liam Byrne has also been elected chair of the Business and Trade Committee (despite his two-day bullying suspension last year), with Cat Smith becoming Petitions Committee chair. Here’s the vote breakdown:
Harman filled in for Bryant to lead the Kangaroo Court earlier this year. Look how that turned out…
Chris Bryant has rejoined the Labour front bench after seven years out in the cold, with Sir Keir this morning appointing him Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital across both DCMS and the Science Department. This of course means the Standards Committee will need a new Chair. Some big shoes to fill for whoever steps up: after all, Bryant has even written a whole book about standards in Parliament. Still nothing on whether he’ll apologise to Farage for claiming he’d taken £500,000 from Russia…
The appointment is also bit of a surprise. Just a few months ago, Sir Chris applied for a £105,000-a-year job at Oxford University, and it was presumed he was standing down in 2024. Perhaps a front bench offer will encourage him to stick around a bit longer…
A year has passed since Chris Pincher’s Carlton Club misconduct kicked off a government crisis and the Standards Committee has just now published a report into the situation. The committee recommends Pincher be given an eight week Commons suspension which, if approved, would be enough to trigger a recall petition and then a by-election in his Tamworth seat. Although it looks solid blue on paper, Labour would definitely fancy their chances…
Read the report in full below:
The Commons Standards Committee has recommended that disgraced Ex- SNP MP Margaret Ferrier should face a 30 day Commons suspension for Covid rule breaches. This paves the way for a by-election in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. The seat is a Labour target, currently forecast to change hands.
Guido notes the Tories on the Committee, some of whom also sit on Boris’s Kangaroo Court, voted against the sanction. They instead opted for a 9 day suspension. Just short of the threshold for an automatic by-election…
Co-conspirators can read the full report below
The Commons’ Independent Expert Panel has today dismissed an appeal by Andrew Bridgen against a decision by the Commons’ sleaze committee that he broke the code of conduct. Bridgen contested that the sanction imposed on him was “unreasonable or disproportionate”. The IEP, chaired by a retired appeal judge, dismissed the appeal on all grounds…
Bridgen also claimed the Commissioner’s investigation was flawed:
“his criticism is that the Commissioner failed to reflect the suggestion that the complaint against the Appellant was by a journalist who was politically or professionally motivated; failed to investigate properly whether his lobbying was permissible constituency business; and failed to take that factor into account in her recommendations to the Committee. She also failed to reflect the fact that, despite his contract with Mere Plantations Limited to provide services for a monthly fee of £1,000, he had not invoiced them and had received no money from them. He further sought to criticise the Commissioner on the ground that another Member had lobbied in circumstances where that Member owed a relevant debt, but that matter was resolved speedily and without referral to the Committee.”
The IEP replied in their report that “the journalistic or political motives behind any complaint are completely irrelevant.”
Rather than reducing the sentence, the panel notes that in fact the sanctions for breach of the rule against paid advocacy “could properly and fairly have been more severe”. Not the outcome he was hoping for…
