PM is branded a coward in angry Commons scenes
BORIS Johnson was branded a “coward not a leader” after failing to apologise for the Westminster sleaze row during an illtempered Prime Minister’s Questions.
Sir Keir Starmer doubted the Prime Minister is the “man to clean up Westminster” given he “led his troops through the sewers to cover up corruption and he can’t even say sorry”.
Conservative MP Michael Fabricant later raised a point of order urging Labour leader Sir Keir to withdraw his “coward” jibe, with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle noting: “Coward is not what is used in this House.”
Sir Keir replied: “I withdraw it, but he’s no leader.”
The Labour leader had pressed Mr Johnson to follow some of his Conservative colleagues and apologise for the Owen Paterson affair.
Mr Johnson repeated it was a “mistake” to conflate the lobbying rule breach by former Tory minister Mr Paterson with overhauling the standards process more generally.
He added a cross-party approach is required on standards reform for MPS, before trying to switch the focus on to Sir Keir by claiming: “Perhaps he can clear up from his proposals whether he would continue to be able to take money as he did from Mishcon de Reya and other legal firms?”
Speaker Sir Lindsay repeatedly clashed with Mr Johnson on his attempts to question Sir Keir, at one stage telling him to sit down: “I’m not going to be challenged, you may be the Prime Minister of this country but in this House, I’m in charge.”
Sir Keir also told the Commons: “That’s not an apology. Everybody else has apologised for him, but he won’t apologise for himself.
“A coward, not a leader. Weeks defending corruption. Yesterday a screeching last-minute U-turn to avoid defeat on Labour’s plan to ban MPS from dodgy second contracts. But waving one white flag won’t be enough to restore trust and there are plenty of opposition days to come, and we will not let the Prime Minister water down the proposals or pretend that it’s job done.
“We still haven’t shut the revolving door where ministers are regulating a company one minute, and working for them the next. There are plenty of cases that still stain this House.”
The Labour leader asked if the Prime Minister would back “proper independence and powers for the business appointments committee and banning these job swaps”.
The Prime Minister said: “What I think we need to do is work together on the basis of the independent report by the committee on standards in public life to take things forward, and indeed to address the appeals process.
“But what I think everybody can see that in a classic lawyerly way, the right honourable gentleman is now trying to prosecute others for exactly the course of action that he took himself.”