Tories reject proposals for independent watchdog to police rule breaking prime ministers

Proposals for an independent watchdog to determine whether Government ministers and prime ministers have broken parliamentary rules has been dismissed.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis rejected Labour's call, saying such a move would “usurp” the power of the Prime Minister - who only narrowly survived a vote of confidence in his leadership last night.

The proposal comes in the wake of the damning Sue Gray report into breaches of Covid regulations in Number 10 and Whitehall during lockdown.

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Both Boris Johnson and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak repeatedly denied they had attended such gatherings, but were later fined after a police investigation. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, speaking in a Commons debate this afternoon, said: “I have heard ministers on the media in the last 24 hours talking about how we must draw a line, how we must move on.

“But many people in this country cannot draw a line, cannot move on whilst this Prime Minister is in office, because it triggers them and what they experienced and the trauma that their family faced during the crisis.”

She later added: “There is nothing decent about the way that he has acted. And what example does he set?

“This Prime Minister’s example of leadership: illegally proroguing parliament, breeding a Downing Street culture where his staff felt able to break lockdown rules including himself, putting the very standards that underpin our democracy to the shredder.”

Ms Rayner said Labour would establish an independent Ethics Commission which would have powers to launch investigations without ministerial approval, collect evidence and decide sanctions.

"“No