PMQs: Johnson on the ropes as Starmer heralds the “return of Tory sleaze”

Sir Keir Starmer hailed the Greensill scandal as the “return of Tory sleaze” at today’s PMQs after Boris Johnson rejected his calls for a full parliamentary inquiry into lobbying by a cross-party panel of MPs.

The fiery exchange comes after one of Britain’s most senior former civil servants became the latest in a string of senior government officials to be dragged into the ever-growing row surrounding financier Lex Greensill and his doomed finance firm Greensill Capital.

Getting straight to the heart of the issue, Starmer asked Johnson whether he thought the current lobbying rules were “fit for purpose”. The PM deflected the question with a quick sidestep – insisting that both he and the Cabinet Secretary were “concerned” that civil servants had crossed the “boundaries” with business before telling Starmer to direct his concerns to the independent review he has set up to look into the investigation.  

Labour has made it clear that it believes the investigation “has all the hallmarks of a Conservative cover-up”, and Starmer was quick to rip it to shreds. 

He said the inquiry is not “looking at very much at all”, least of all the lobbying rules. Starmer later pointed out that Nigel Boardman, the corporate lawyer chairing the inquiry, worked for a law firm that “lobbied to loosen lobbying laws” – which is not exactly a good look for the PM’s “proper independent review”.

Relishing the opportunity to turn the scandal into a broad attack on the sleaze “at the heart of the Conservative government”, Starmer reeled off a string of Greensill revelations involving both Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, before asking: “Does the Prime Minister accept there is a revolving door – indeed an open door – between his Conservative government and paid lobbyists?”

Johnson retorted that his government had been “consistently tough” on lobbying – a statement that was met with derisive laughter – and said that Labour voted to repeal the Lobbying Act “because they thought it was unfair and restricting ability to make representation”. It is worth noting that the Labour manifesto also proposed stopping MPs taking paid second jobs and introducing a lobbying register covering contacts with all senior government employees.

The Labour leader finished his attack on a triumphant note. “The Greensill scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. Dodgy contracts, privileged access, jobs for their mates – this is the return of Tory sleaze,” he said, joking that there should be an investigation by the police anti-corruption unit that features in the BBC drama Line of Duty: “The more I listened to the Prime Minister more I think that Ted Hastings and AC-12 are needed to get to the bottom of this one.”

He pressed MPs to back Labour’s motion for a cross-party inquiry in a bid to start to “clean up the sleaze and cronyism that’s at the heart of this Conservative government”.

Johnson retorted: “We’re getting on with rooting out bent coppers. We’re also hiring thousands more police officers…. we’re getting on with protecting the public of this country from crime of all kinds” – before being swiftly cut off by the Speaker for not addressing the question.