So yet again the scumbag 'nasty party' is mired in sleaze !!! Johnson acknowledges concerns about ‘boundaries’ David Hughes 14 April 2021, 12:33 pm Boris Johnson admitted it is not clear whether the “boundaries” between Whitehall and business have been “properly understood” as Labour claimed the Greensill row marks the return of “Tory sleaze”. Ministers and the Civil Service have been dragged into the row over Greensill Capital’s links with Government and former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the financial firm. Labour’s calls for a parliamentary inquiry intensified after it emerged that the former head of Whitehall procurement became an adviser to Greensill Capital while still working as a civil servant, in a move approved by the Cabinet Office. Bill Crothers began working for the firm as a part-time adviser to the board in September 2015 and did not leave his role as Government chief commercial officer until November that year. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson said he shares the “widespread concern about some of the stuff that we’re reading at the moment”, and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case also has concerns. “I do think it is a good idea in principle that top civil servants should be able to engage with business and should have experience of the private sector,” Mr Johnson said. “When I look at the accounts I’m reading to date, it’s not clear that those boundaries had been properly understood and I’ve asked for a proper independent review of the arrangements that we have to be conducted by Nigel Boardman, and he will be reporting in June.” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged Mr Johnson about the row at Prime Minister’s Questions. He said financier Lex Greensill was brought into the government as an adviser by Mr Cameron, before then hiring the former prime minister to act as a lobbyist contacting Cabinet ministers including Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. “And now, even more unbelievably, we know the Government’s head of procurement – no less – became a Greensill adviser while he was still a civil servant,” Sir Keir said. There was a “revolving door, indeed an open door, between this Conservative Government and paid lobbying”. The Prime Minister insisted the Tories had been “consistently tough on lobbying”. But Sir Keir questioned the choice of Mr Boardman to lead the inquiry because he worked for a law firm “which lobbied to loosen lobbying laws”. Labour will force a Commons vote later on establishing a parliamentary committee to examine the row, which would involve ministers and Mr Cameron being forced to answer questions in public. Sir Keir said an “overhaul of the whole broken system” was needed. “The Greensill scandal is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “Dodgy contracts, privileged access, jobs for their mates, this is the return of Tory sleaze.” In a reference to hit police corruption TV show Line Of Duty, Sir Keir said: “The more I listen to the Prime Minister, the more I think Ted Hastings and AC-12 is needed to get to the bottom of this one.” Mr Johnson insisted “we’re getting on with rooting out bent coppers”.
On the contrary, I learned a great deal from my parents by sitting and listening to the committee members in our lounge attending a 'party' meeting which my parents hosted.
Far from it, both my sisters, who like me listened to the committee meetings are now very firmly supporters of the scumbag 'nasty party' - much to my disgust !!!
And the Sleaze goes on (apologies to Cher) Labour demands probe into Johnson’s conduct in cronyism row Sam Blewett 22 April 2021, 12:01 am Labour has demanded that the powerful Liaison Committee of MPs holds an urgent investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct after the latest revelation in a row over cronyism. The call came on Wednesday after it emerged the Prime Minister exchanged text messages with billionaire Sir James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Mr Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Sir James as he sought to build ventilators early in the coronavirus crisis. In a further development, the Times reported that Mr Johnson rejected his Cabinet Secretary’s advice to change his phone number because of concerns over the ease with which lobbyists and others from the business world were able to contact him. Downing Street did not deny that Simon Case, the top civil servant, made the recommendation. Labour’s Rachel Reeves issued the call for Sir Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the Commons Liaison Committee comprised of select committee chairs, to launch an investigation. The shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said the Prime Minister must give evidence before the cross-party group of MPs “about the ongoing cronyism row”. She called for all correspondence from Mr Johnson’s phone about Government business to be released and for No 10 to release details of communications between ministers, officials and lobbyists. In a statement, Ms Reeves added: “Revelations today seem to confirm a growing feeling that if one has access to a telephone number of someone like the Prime Minister or the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then they are able to gain special treatment, potentially even significant financial ones. “We need the Prime Minister to appear before the Liaison Committee immediately and for a thorough investigation into his conduct on this matter.” The BBC reported a series of text messages between Mr Johnson and Sir James exchanged in March last year after the businessman was unable to get the assurances he was seeking from the Treasury. Sir James, who this month changed his main address in business filings to the UK from Singapore, wrote to the Treasury requesting that his staff would not have to pay additional tax if they came to the UK to work on the ventilator project. But when he failed to receive a reply, Sir James reportedly took up the matter directly with the Prime Minister. He said in a text that the firm was ready but that “sadly” it seemed no-one wanted them to proceed. Mr Johnson replied: “I will fix it tomo! We need you. It looks fantastic.” The Prime Minister then texted him again saying: “(Chancellor) Rishi (Sunak) says it is fixed!! We need you here.” Two weeks later, Mr Sunak told the Commons Treasury Committee that the tax status of people who came to the UK to provide specific help during the pandemic would not be affected. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested it was “one rule for those that have got the Prime Minister’s phone number, another for everybody else”. But Mr Johnson told the Commons during Prime Minister’s Questions that he was “happy to share all the details” of the exchanges as there is “nothing to conceal”. “I make absolutely no apology at all for shifting heaven and earth and doing everything I possibly could, as I think any prime minister would in those circumstances, to secure ventilators for the people of this country,” he added. The Dyson messages emerged as the Government faces sustained allegations of “cronyism” after a series of reports of former prime minister David Cameron lobbying for his employer, Greensill Capital. Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, a former chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told BBC Newsnight: “What we’re getting to is an era where now it seems if you have the phone number of Rishi Sunak or (Health Secretary) Matt Hancock or indeed Boris Johnson you can do business by text message. “And what you do is jump the queue, you rig the system and you grab the cash. And that just isn’t on.” In a statement, Sir James said: “When the Prime Minister rang me to ask Dyson to urgently build ventilators, of course I said yes. “We were in the midst of a national emergency and I am hugely proud of Dyson’s response – I would do the same again if asked. “Neither Weybourne nor Dyson received any benefit from the project, indeed commercial projects were delayed, and Dyson voluntarily covered the £20 million of development costs. Not one penny was claimed from any Government, in any jurisdiction, in relation to Covid-19
