Government to rethink MPs' conduct plan after backlash

The government will rethink its plans to overhaul the policing of MPs' conduct after a furious backlash.

On Wednesday, No 10 backed a shake-up of the standards watchdog and blocked the suspension of one of its own former ministers, Owen Paterson.

But it led to accusations of sleaze, with Labour saying the Tories just wanted to "let off one of their own".

Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg has now confirmed the changes will not go ahead without cross-party support.

He told the Commons there was a "strong feeling" that any change to the standards process "should not be based on a single case", and Wednesday's vote had "conflated" the two.

"This link needs to be broken" added Mr Rees-Mogg. "Therefore I and others will be looking at working on a cross party basis to achieve improvements in our system for future cases."

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