Number 10 will have been relieved that the weekend did not bring new stories about Conservative MPs raking in lots of money from second jobs. There were still sleaze angles in the Sunday papers, including regarding the Prime Minister’s own dealings, but the air seems to be going out of the story a little.
The past two weeks has opened up a chasm between the ‘red wall’ MPs elected in 2019 and more traditional Tories
The trouble is that this week brings a whole host of new chances for the row to blow up once again. There’s the Liaison Committee hearing with the Prime Minister on Wednesday, which will include questions on ‘propriety and ethics in government’. Labour also has an opposition day debate in the afternoon, arguing for a ban on paid directorships and consultancies for MPs.
Johnson and Rishi Sunak have tried to defuse things by suggesting that things need to change and that the Conservative party might have handled the Paterson case differently with hindsight.
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