The Tories have scrapped plans to overhaul the MPs' standards system after one of their own politicians faced suspension for breaching lobbying rules.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons admitted the move to set up a new committee and change the way MPs were investigated had “created a certain amount of controversy”.
Last night MPs from across the House were in uproar after a vote to change the standards system and remove the immediate need to penalise Owen Paterson was voted through with a majority of 18. Tory MPs were whipped to vote in favour of the plans, which caused further outrage.
Despite this, many abstained including Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives. Alister Jack, Scottish secretary, did not vote either although is thought to have been given permission not to vote as he was attending COP26.
All the other Scottish Conservative MPs voted in favour, however.
The SNP's Pete Wishart said his MPs would not be taking part in any new committee, while others called it corrupt.
This morning Chris Bryant, Labour MP who chairs the current Standards Committee which looks at cases of rule-breaking by MPs, likened the government's actions to those expected to be seen in Russia.
Mr Rees-Mogg said that the plans had “conflated the individual case with the general concern” there was not an appeals process for MPs who felt the punishment they faced was unfair.
Mr Rees-Mogg said the government wanted to “achieve improvements in our system for future cases”, but that after Labour and the SNP vowed to boycott the committee, he realised cross-party consensus had not been achieved.
Conservative MP Peter Bone told MPs today that his office was vandalised after he voted in favour of the changes.
He said: "This morning my office was vandalised because of the way I voted last night.
"That puts my staff in danger, and this is not the way this should happen. "We could have strong disagreements but some of us should remember what happened to Sir David Amess and perhaps our language needs to be a little temperate.”
SNP MP Pete Wishart said the plans, which have now been scrapped, were going to see a return to the 'cash for questions' era.
He told MPs: "
What we have now is absolutely disgraceful. We have his way. We have no legitimacy in this House, no confidence in the membership of this House and we have absolutely no trust from any of the members of the public at all. No wonder there are so many gloomy Tory MPs kicking around this House this morning, it has started to dawn on them, the magnitude of what they attempted to do yesterday.
“What they did was to legitimise and sanction paid advocacy and signal a return for cash for questions and grubby brown envelopes stuffed full of cash for doing the paymasters’ bidding.”
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