LONDON (AFP) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected pressure to appear before British lawmakers debating the standards system Monday, despite days of sleaze and cronyism claims against his government intensifying with new revelations.
MPs are set to hold an emergency debate amid calls for an independent inquiry into the mounting allegations of apparent corruption and inappropriate conduct within the Conservative party and government.
It follows outrage at efforts last week to overhaul parliament’s internal disciplinary process which would have prevented the 30-day suspension of a Tory MP found to have committed an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules.
Although Johnson abandoned the unprecedented move within 24 hours -- prompting the lawmaker, Owen Paterson, to resign from parliament -- it threw the spotlight on a raft of allegations around MPs’ behavior.
It also prompted an extraordinary broadside from former Conservative prime minister John Major, who called the episode “shameful” and “had the effect of trashing the reputation of parliament”.
Despite the growing crisis, Johnson was in northeast England Monday to see hospital staff receive Covid-19 boosters and flu jabs, in what he called “a longstanding engagement”.
His spokesman noted he would make the roughly 600-mile (965-kilometre) round-trip by train -- days after being heavily criticized for flying by private jet from the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to attend a private London dinner with former colleagues at the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
But Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour party, accused Johnson of “running scared”, after earlier calling for further disclosures of Paterson’s correspondence with ministers over Covid contracts.
“Boris Johnson doesn’t have the decency to defend or apologize for his actions,” he tweeted. “His concern, as always, is self-preservation, not the national interest.”
The furor around MPs’ conduct heightened over the weekend with a report the Conservatives have been “systematically” awarding seats in the unelected House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber which scrutinizes legislation, to its high-value donors.
An investigation by The Sunday Times and Open Democracy found almost all of the party’s 16 different treasurers over the past two decades were offered seats after increasing their donations to more than £3 million ($4.1 million, 3.5 million euros).
It follows other claims of government wrongdoing over the awarding of coronavirus contracts and multiple aspects of Johnson’s own conduct, as well as renewed focus on lawmakers being able to have high-paying second jobs.