Chris Bryant, chairman of the municipality’s Standards Committee, said: “Talk about people who celebrate their own homework. You just can’t do everything in the house.
“Every minute he was prime minister, he was investigated either by the police, the standards commissioner or his ethics adviser. It’s like a theater director who gets bad reviews in the newspapers by just closing all the newspapers. “
Mr Johnson’s spokesman confirmed that while the future of the role is being considered by the prime minister, he will be advised by independent government officials in the cabinet.
This will include the fairness and ethics team based in the department responsible for working on Sue Gray’s report, which itself has been heavily criticized for lacking control over events such as the alleged Downing Street Abba Party.
The spokesman declined to commit to keeping the new body independent, a move that will bring back nearly two decades of independent advice provided by Sir Tony Blair.
On Thursday, Lord Evans of Wordale, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said the post was created in 2006 because of “the undesirableness of investigations under the Ministerial Code by either the Cabinet Secretary or those appointed to investigate allegations on an ad hoc basis’.
He called for the new role to be stronger, not weaker, adding: “Anything less would be a step backwards.”
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