THE SNP are to call for Jacob Rees-Mogg to resign from the Government over the Tories’ “humiliating retreat” in the Owen Paterson scandal when the matter is due to return to the Commons next week.
Pete Wishart is to demand the Tory frontbencher steps down over the debacle which saw ministers last week attempt to bring in a review of standards’ procedures to prevent Paterson’s suspension from parliament – only to U-turn on the matter 24 hours later after a public backlash.
On Monday the saga is expected to get a new airing in the parliamentary chamber when MPs vote on a motion lodged by Rees-Mogg to axe the planned overhaul and back the findings of a cross-party committee into Paterson’s breaches of lobbying rules.
READ MORE: How the Owen Paterson sleaze scandal sums up the Tory government
It is listed by the Government as one of the last items of business on the Commons order paper, raising the possibility the item may not be debated. However, should the Commons run out of time the Government would have to list the motion for another day. Rees-Mogg will be speaking for the Government.
Wishart, who will be leading the debate for the SNP, told The National he would be urging Rees-Mogg to “do the right thing” during the evening’s debate.
“The motion approves the suspension of Owen Paterson which the Tories fervently objected to last Wednesday. And the heart of the motion is to rescind the setting up of the committee [to review standards’ rules] which they just voted for that day. It’s a total, utter, humiliating retreat for the Tories and no one has taken any responsibility for it yet,” he said.
“Jacob Rees-Mogg should really be considering his position. We will absolutely be calling for that. Our view is that this was hatched up by him and the chief whip Mark Spencer (below) and sanctioned by Boris Johnson."
Wishart said it was Spencer and Rees-Mogg who “brought this grubby motion to the House” to review the standards’ rules and “if they had any dignity left” they would go.
Paterson was found to have broken lobbying rules by advocating for companies that paid him tens of thousands of pounds above his own MPs’ salary.
But when the standards committee recommended consequences – a 30-day suspension – the Government instead moved to abolish the body and replace it with a committee with an in-built Tory majority.
READ MORE: 'Scandal after scandal' as PM refuses to rule out peerage for Owen Paterson
Following a backlash, the Government withdrew its support from the former Cabinet minister and Paterson quit as an MP, bemoaning the “cruel” world of politics.
The controversy widened into whether MPs should have second jobs or outside earnings when further revelations emerged that former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, now a Tory backbencher, had earned hundreds of thousands of pounds giving legal advice to the British Virgin Islands on corruption. He cast his MP’s vote remotely from the Caribbean while parliament was sitting and he was involved with his legal work there.
It also continued after an investigation by the Sunday Times and Open Democracy last weekend found that almost every Conservative party treasurer in recent times had donated at least £3 million to the party and had been ennobled.
Wishart made a complaint against Boris Johnson to the Metropolitan Police alleging “cash for honours”, with the force later confirming it is looking at the complaint. The SNP MP wrote to the commissioner of the force on Monday saying he was concerned about possible corruption in the awarding of peerages to Tory donors and senior figures.
He claimed there could be breaches of the law under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
Wishart wrote in his letter to Dame Cressida Dick: “Since the Conservative Party returned to power in 2010, successive prime ministers have elevated nine of the party’s former treasurers to the House of Lords.
“Each of those appointed since 2014 has donated at least £3m. Any investigation must uncover any process or link between these donations and the subsequent appointment of these individuals to the House of Lords.
“In total, 22 of the Conservative Party’s biggest financial contributors have been made members of the House of Lords in the past 11 years.”
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