PM Demands All MPs Who Break Rules Be ‘Punished'

BORIS Johnson has warned that MPs who break parliamentary rules on second jobs “should be punished” as he attempted to quell the Westminster sleaze storm.

- Martyn Brown

The Prime Minister said politicians must put their job as an MP first and stressed that paid lobbying is never acceptable.

But he refused to apologise for the furore which erupted when he attempted to protect Tory MP Owen Paterson after he was found to have lobbied on behalf of two firms he was paid to advise.

In a press conference at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Mr Johnson was also forced to deny – in front of a watching global audience – that Britain’s political system is corrupt.

Scrutiny

He said: “I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country and I genuinely think that our institutions are not corrupt.

“We have a very, very tough system of parliamentary democracy and scrutiny, not least by the media.

“I think what you have got is cases where, sadly, MPs have broken the rules in the past, maybe guilty of breaking the rules today. What I want to see is them facing appropriate sanctions.”

Instead of being asked about his efforts to tackle climate change the PM was repeatedly grilled about another Conservative MP, Sir Geoffrey Cox, who is being investigated for apparently doing paid outside work in his Commons office.

In a thinly-veiled swipe at his fellow Tory, Mr Johnson said: “I just want to say that the most important thing is that those who break the rules must be investigated and should be punished.