Labour call for investigation into minister’s comments on sleaze watchdog commissioner

Labour are demanding a formal investigation into business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng after he publicly speculated regarding the future of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

The business secretary told Sky News yesterday that Commissioner Kathryn Stone should “consider her position” after MPs voted to quash the watchdog’s recommended 30-day suspension of Conservative MP Owen Paterson.

In a letter to the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has said Kwarteng’s remarks could have breached the ministerial code, and that: “For the business secretary to use this entirely corrupt process to bully the independent Parliamentary Commissioner is disgusting.”

The code mandates that government ministers “treat all those with whom they come into contact with consideration and respect”.

“This type of behaviour has no place in our democracy. A cabinet minister publicly threatening the position of a member of staff who serves the Houses of Parliament and upholds our democratic processes is a fundamental breach of the ministerial Code,” she argued.