Ban MPs' spurious second jobs to end the cycle of sleaze

‘For large numbers of MPs, election is a vehicle for self-enrichment’

- Leo McKinstry

TOO many of our politicians never seem to learn. After all the dark scandals of recent decades, Westminster is once again engulfed by accusations of sleaze. It is extraordinary that, at the heart of our democracy, there is still a grubby culture where public office is cynically exploited for private gain.

That is certainly the right description for the conduct of disgraced Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose clear breach of Parliamentary rules against paid lobbying sparked the latest controversy. A former Cabinet Minister, Paterson accepted the incredible sum of £100,000 a year from two Northern Irish food firms to push their commercial interests.

Yet when he was found guilty by the Standards Committee, he tried to escape his punishment by posing as a whistleblower for public safety and a victim of a unfair process. Shamefully, Boris Johnson’s Government joined in the attempt to get him off the hook by attacking the standards system, only to be forced by public outrage into a humiliating retreat.