British PM admits mistake over handling of sleaze crisis in party

LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended a botched bid to overhaul Parliament's standards system that has prompted a weeks-long sleaze crisis for the ruling Conservatives, as he faced grilling from lawmakers.

With opposition parties on the attack and rank-and-file MPs from his party deeply unhappy, Mr Johnson admitted this week that he had made a "mistake", as senior colleagues quizzed him for two hours at a scrutiny session held three times a year.

That came shortly after angry exchanges with Labour leader Keir Starmer - and, unusually, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle - over claims of improper conduct, and before he met Tory lawmakers for a separate inquisition.

Mr Johnson's gruelling day followed several weeks of controversy kick-started by his failed attempt to overhaul the internal system policing MPs, just as Mr Owen Paterson faced suspension over lobbying ministers for two firms that had him on their payrolls.

"It was a total mistake not to see that Owen's breach of the rules... made any discussion about anything else impossible," Mr Johnson told Parliament's most senior cross-party watchdog committee.

"The intention genuinely was not to exonerate anybody. The intention was to see whether there was some way in which, on a cross-party basis, we could improve the system. In retrospect, it was obviously mistaken to think that we could conflate the two things."

Hours earlier, Mr Starmer had branded Mr Johnson a "coward" for refusing to apologise for his role in the saga - a remark the opposition leader later withdrew.

Mr Johnson also clashed with the normally mild-tempered Mr Hoyle over his own behaviour during weekly "prime minister's questions", as he tried to turn the tables by demanding answers from Mr Starmer.

"You may be the prime minister of this country, but in this House, I'm in charge!" Mr Hoyle bellowed, ordering Mr Johnson to "sit down".

Westminster has been consumed since late last month by the row about MPs supplementing their publicly funded salaries with lucrative second jobs, stoking accusations of conflicts of interest.

Mr Paterson's conduct soon became overshadowed by revelations that numerous other MPs had high-paying second jobs, in particular lawyer and former attorney-general Geoffrey Cox.

Mr Cox has been accused of using his parliamentary office for outside legal work, which has netted him more than £6 million (S$11 million) since he became an MP in 2005, on top of his annual MP's salary of about £82,000.

Mr Paterson has since resigned from Parliament, while Mr Cox denies breaking the rules.

Lawmakers can hold outside roles if they declare them, but cannot use their parliamentary offices or resources for such work. Paid lobbying is also forbidden, with accusations of wrongdoing probed by parliamentary standards watchdogs.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE