I crashed the car over Paterson, admits PM

Johnson says he made a mistake as he concedes minister broke lobbying rules

BORIS JOHNSON admitted last night he had “crashed the car” in his handling of the Owen Paterson case, and said for the first time that the former Tory MP had broken lobbying rules.

The Prime Minister also conceded he had made a “mistake” and felt “regret” over ordering MPS to vote to delay a decision on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended from Parliament.

“On a clear road I crashed the car into a ditch”, he told a room full of frustrated Tory backbenchers at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, after two weeks of damaging “sleaze” headlines.

The comments are an attempt to draw a line under a fortnight of political damage since the vote on Mr Paterson’s case, which has seen the Tories slump behind Labour in multiple opinion polls and growing disquiet in the party over plans to limit MPS’ second jobs.

The remarks came at the end of a dramatic day in Parliament, which saw Mr Johnson rebuked at Prime Minister’s Questions by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for failing to show “respect”.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, in turn accused Mr Johnson of being a “coward”, but was forced to retract the comment when warned it was against parliamentary rules.

Later, during an appearance at the liaison committee, Caroline Nokes, the female MP who has accused Mr Johnson’s father of touching her inappropriately, challenged the Prime Minister over whether more should be done to give women confidence to report sexual harassment.

MPS yesterday voted through the Prime Minister’s proposals for tightening up the rules on which second jobs they can hold – a move No10 hopes will ease the political pressure.

It means that the plans to ban MPS from becoming political or parliamentary “consultants” and capping their outside work to within “reasonable limits” will now be taken forward by the cross-party committee on standards.

However, the exact details of what would and would not be allowed remained unclear yesterday, with specific changes to the MPS Code of Conduct due to be made public before the end of January.

There remains disquiet in the Tory party over the moves, with some MPS telling The Daily Telegraph they want to ban Mr Johnson and other Cabinet ministers from getting paid political jobs when they leave office in return.

Over the past fortnight there has been widespread frustration among Tory MPS over how a botched attempt to help Mr Paterson had spiralled into a wider debate on MPS, their second jobs and standards in politics.

The Prime Minister was questioned at the liaison committee about his handling of the Paterson case.

Mr Johnson had refused repeated opportunities to express regret at the handling of the issue but yesterday – while he did not explicitly apologise or say sorry – he accepted blame for how the case had been handled.

He told the committee: “The intention genuinely was not to exonerate anybody, the intention was to see whether there was some way in which,

‘He was apologising for the fact that he’d led us into a very difficult situation and was accepting responsibility’

on a cross-party basis, we could improve the system.

“In retrospect it was obviously, obviously mistaken to think we could conflate the two things and do I regret that decision? Yes, I certainly do.”

The Prime Minister also said it was “clear” Mr Paterson had broken the lobbying rules. He said: “In forming the impression that the former member for North Shropshire had not had a fair process I may well have been mistaken.”

Addressing MPS later that evening at the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPS, which takes place behind closed doors, Mr Johnson made his “crashed the car” comment.

The remark was first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed to The Telegraph by a Tory MP and Downing Street source as accurate.

One Tory MP present at the meeting said they took the comment to be an acknowledgement of blame to colleagues now facing press scrutiny over their own finances.

The MP said: “He was apologising for the fact that he’d led us into a very difficult situation and – very importantly – was accepting responsibility.

“He made clear: ‘It’s down to me, not

anyone else’.” However, some Tory backbenchers are now pushing the idea that Cabinet ministers should be banned from taking paid jobs linked to politics for two years when they leave their roles.

Two MPS confirmed they were supportive of the move and are urging others to get behind the idea, which could become a proposed amendment – though it would be unlikely to pass.

The move is a deliberate attempt to limit Mr Johnson’s ability to make large sums of money from private sources when he leaves office, as David Cameron and Tony Blair have done.

One Tory MP said: “Colleagues are actively discussing ways to block every Cabinet minister from the Prime Minister down from taking up any paid job two years after leaving office.

“It is all very well for him to sit there pontificating about it now, but we all know there will be an unholy rush for Cabinet ministers to sign up to new jobs when they leave.”

The difficulties in getting cross-party support for any change was laid bare yesterday as only Tory MPS voted for the Government’s amendment proposing the changes.

Labour MPS abstained, with the party leadership angered that the Tories had not supported their proposal to have reforms put to a vote early next year. There is now no timetable for holding such a vote.

A Labour spokesman said the party would bombard marginal Tory seats with digital adverts accusing them of not being tough enough on “sleaze”.

At the liaison committee, Ms Nokes asked Mr Johnson yesterday if he believed that making public sexual harassment a specific crime could encourage more women to come forward.

On Monday, she publicly accused Stanley Johnson of having “smacked” her forcefully “on the behind” before making a vulgar comment at a party conference in 2003, when he was a party candidate.

She has since been contacted by “scores” of women alleging “similar experiences” at the hands of other Tories, including numerous incidents in party settings, according to a source close to Ms Nokes.

“There were a lot of party conference stories,” the source said. “It’s also gay men at [party] conference saying they’re subject to it, not just women.”

Last night Ms Nokes said: “So many women have been in touch with me this week following the piece I did on harassment. It is horrific to think these are issues women face day in and day out, but I am honoured they felt they could share them with me.”