‘Watch your back’: Ex-standards commissioner tells of warning from Tory MP
The IndependentGet the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Parliament’s former standards watchdog said she was told “watch your back” by a Conservative MP, as she described her bruising experience in the role. “I was approached by a female Conservative MP who backed me into a corner and said: ‘You need to watch yourself; the knives are out for you; you just watch your back’. “It didn’t work.” The Commons Standards Committee said Mr Paterson’s actions were an “egregious” breach of the rules on paid advocacy by MPs and recommended that he should be suspended for 30 sitting days. “One Member of Parliament said: ‘If only I had gone round to his house for dinner, we could have had a conversation and sorted it all out.’ “I’m afraid in the 21st century, conversations over drinks and dinner are not the way that proper investigative processes are carried out.”
History of this topic
Parliament watchdog had dozens of complaints on Hancock’s I’m a Celeb appearance
The Independent
Commons sleaze watchdog faces ‘outrageous’ claim she is letting off MPs to get peerage
The IndependentDiscover Related