Boris Johnson was not interested in launching a “pre-emptive strike” on parliament’s sleaze watchdog chief during the Owen Paterson debacle, a cabinet minister has claimed.
It is “absolutely not true” that prime minister wanted to reduce the power of Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone ahead of a potential probe into his flat refurbishment, said education secretary Nadhim Zahawi.
The allegation had been made by Mr Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings – who claimed No 10 was keen to land blows against Ms Stone’s office and the Electoral Commission.
But the education secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That is absolutely not true, and Kathryn Stone and her duties are the responsibility of the House of Commons, and the Speaker of the House.”
Mr Zahawi added: “And I think the important thing to remember is that parliament as the legislative chamber of our country has absolutely the right to look at and improve the system.”
Mr Johnson has been investigated by the standards commissioner three times. Most recently, the PM was found by Ms Stone’s office to have broken the rules over declaring his luxury stay in Mustique – but the cross-party standards committee chose not to endorse the finding and cleared him of wrongdoing.
Potentially the PM faces a fourth investigation into the initial financing of the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge has reported Mr Johnson to the standards commissioner over the matter – but Ms Stone’s office has not yet announced whether it will look into allegations of misconduct.
Mr Zahawi said the issue of the flat had already been looked at by Mr Johnson’s own ministerial standards adviser Lord Geidt “and the prime minister was found not to have broken any ministerial code”.
He added: “I think it was looked at by Lord Geidt, it’s a ministerial declaration and I think that’s the correct way of doing this. We have very good robust processes, we always want to improve them, but I think that’s the correct way of doing it.”
On Thursday, Mr Cummings claimed that the failed attempt to save Mr Paterson from suspension by pushing an amendment to rewrite conduct rules was a deliberate move by No 10 to cut watchdogs down to size.
“Yesterday was a pre-emptive strike by PM on EC [Electoral Commission] and [Kathryn] Stone. Tory MPs are just expendable cannon fodder,” he tweeted.
Mr Cummings added: “This is about trying to keep secret the coverup earlier this year on his illegal donations and lies to Geidt and the Cabinet Secretary about it all.”
It comes as Labour called for an investigation into business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s public speculation about about Ms Stone’s future. The cabinet minister suggested she should “consider her position”.
In a letter to Lord Geidt, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner suggested Mr Kwarteng’s comments amounted to bullying. “For the business secretary to use this entirely corrupt process to bully the independent Parliamentary Commissioner is disgusting.”
Asked about Mr Kwarteng’s comments, Mr Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: “Kwasi [Kwarteng] agrees that Kathryn Stone and her position is up to parliament.”
Meanwhile, the education secretary said Mr Johnson’s astonishing U-turn in the Mr Paterson saga on Thursday showed “character”.
Admitting it was a “mistake” for the government to conflate the Tory MP’s case with an attempt to change conduct rules – he claimed the PM was wise not to “plough on ahead regardless”.
Mr Zahawi told LBC: “When you make a mistake, I’d much rather have a government and a prime minister and the chief whip who says, ‘Hold on a second, let’s go back, because I think we’ve made a mistake here’.
He added: “That makes me much more confident of the character of the people leading this country than people who would have just ploughed on ahead regardless.”
He also admitted he did not read the full report which found Mr Paterson found he broke lobbying rules in an “egregious case of paid advocacy” – despite voting to save him on Wednesday.
