By PTI
LONDON: UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on Thursday became one of the senior-most Cabinet ministers to speak out in an ongoing row around so-called sleaze allegations engulfing the British government since one of its members of Parliament’s suspension.
The Indian-origin finance minister was asked to address the ongoing row, which has played out in the House of Commons in recent days after widespread outrage over an attempt by the government to block the punishment of Conservative party MP Owen Paterson for paid lobbying.
Since then, parliamentary standards for MPs have come into sharp focus.
“On the broader point and just reflecting over recent events, I think for us as a government, it’s fair to say that we need to do better than we did last week and we know that,” Sunak told Sky News’.
The Paterson lobbying scandal, in which the former MP was found to have broken the rules regarding his GBP 110,000-a-year private sector work advocating for two firms, has sparked a wider debate on second jobs and interests held by MPs.
Speaking to the BBC, Sunak said correct processes should be “followed to the letter” in all cases.
Under the rules, British MPs can have second jobs, but are not allowed to use their Commons offices for personal benefit under their code of conduct.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing the world’s media at COP26 in Glasgow, said the UK was “not remotely a corrupt country” and that MPs who broke the rules should face “appropriate sanctions”.
Paterson, a former Cabinet minister, resigned as an MP last week after he was found to have done this on behalf of two firms.
He denies breaking the rules, and says an investigation into his conduct by Parliament’s standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, was conducted unfairly.
Last week the government blocked a proposal to suspend him from the House of Commons for 30 days, instead suggesting that the system for investigating MPs should be reviewed.
But ministers were forced into a U-turn the very next day, amid fury from Opposition MPs and even some of the government’s own Tory MPs.
Since then, there has been further controversy with a Times’ newspaper report claiming former attorney general Sir Geoffery Cox used his parliamentary office to undertake some of his private work.
Cox has denied breaking any parliamentary rules and declared that it is up to his Torridge and West Devon constituents to decide whether he remains an MP.
