Dame Diana Johnson MP: ‘Sleaze is Parliament’s biggest crisis since the expenses scandal’
‘IT’S A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR HOUSES’: Dame Diana Johnson MP
By Simon Bristow
Sleaze allegations engulfing the Conservative Party risk damaging the reputation of all MPs, and could cause the biggest loss of public trust in politicians since the expenses scandal of 2008, Hull’s longest serving Member of Parliament has said.
The continuing furore over the Owen Paterson affair, concerns over lobbying, and anger over MPs “moonlighting” with second jobs, have rocked Westminster, and even prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to tell a COP26 press conference that the UK “is not remotely a corrupt country”.
Dame Diana Johnson, who has been the Labour MP for Hull North since 2005, said she was concerned the fall-out from the sleaze scandal would not just affect the MPs and party at the centre of it.
She said: “My biggest concern is, you describe it as Tory sleaze but I think for the general public they see it as a plague on all your houses, and a sense that all MPs are part of this, and I know that the vast majority of people who’ve got second jobs who are earning lots and lots of money do tend to be in the Conservative Party.
“I think the Tories in the past have been much more likely to have had second jobs and consultancies, but my concern is the public don’t differentiate and think all MPs are doing this.
“I think it does link back to the expenses scandal of 2008 when public trust in MPs took a very severe downturn; that we are losing the trust of the public again. It is a minority but it’s a plague on all your houses.”
Government attempts to draw a line under the Paterson affair failed last night when a Tory backbencher blocked a motion that would have accepted the findings of an investigation into Paterson’s behaviour, which said he had committed an egregious breach of lobbying rules.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson in Newland Avenue
Paterson has denied any wrongdoing and resigned as an MP after the Government hastily abandoned plans to tear up the regulatory system that found against him.
The Paterson lobbying case has led to intense scrutiny of MPs doing paid work outside Parliament, with the most high-profile example being that of former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox, who has reportedly earned about £6m as a barrister since becoming a Conservative MP 16 years ago.
Sir Geoffrey is also reported to have done some of his legal work in the British Virgin Islands while the Commons was sitting.
Dame Diana was scathing about her Parliamentary colleague, and said she did not know how MPs even found time for second jobs.
“I think Geoffrey Cox is a disgrace, to be honest” she said. “I just can’t understand how – I’m an MP and have been an MP for 16 years and I can’t understand how you can do another full-time job whilst being an MP.
“I just don’t think you can do justice to being an MP, and that has to be your primary role. I gave the PM his due [last Wednesday] – of course I don’t like doing that very often – but he did say that’s where the focus should be.
“And this all comes from the top. You’ve got Boris Johnson earning £250,000 writing a column for The Telegraph. He’s the one who should be providing the lead on this and he’s implicated. What is it I’m doing that they’re not doing? Am I doing this wrong?”
‘I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW MPs HAVE TIME FOR SECOND JOBS’: Dame Diana Johnson speaking to The Hull Story
She added: “I think it just goes back to the expenses scandal. This should have been dealt with a long time ago. There were attempts. Ed Miliband [then Labour leader] in 2015 said we were going to ban second jobs, and I’m pretty sure Theresa May, if she was Prime Minister, wouldn’t have behaved the way Boris Johnson has.”
Labour is set to force a vote on whether MPs should be banned from holding some second jobs, with exceptions for those with a “public service element”.
Dame Diana said there was an important distinction to make, citing the example of Labour colleague Rosena Allin-Khan, who works as a hospital doctor.
She said: “There is another issue, such as doctors and nurses. Rosena Allin-Khan works in A&E and you’ve got to do a certain number of hours to keep your certificate. You are elected for five years, you can lose your seat after that, so I understand why you would want to keep your qualifications.
“I think we’ve got to be careful. But that’s very different for a lawyer earning a million pounds going off to the British Virgin Islands for a month.”
On lobbying, Dame Diana said: “I’ve got companies in Hull North who I frequently speak to Ministers about, but no one’s ever offered me any money to do it. I’m doing it because I’m a constituency MP and there’s an issue for that company.
“I think it’s the system, I think the system is ripe for a major overhaul. And I think we do need to say if you’re an MP it is a full-time job with certain expectations and you’re expected to work for your constituents 99 per cent of the time.”
A concern for all MPs is that any public disquiet around their activities slips into hostility. They had to adopt additional security measures following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, and review them again after Conservative MP Sir David Amess was killed last month.
‘I’M MORE CONSCIOUS OF SECURITY NOW, PARTICULARLY FOR MY STAFF’: Dame Diana Johnson MP
During a wide-ranging interview, Dame Diana also revealed the shocking level of abuse she and her fellow city MPs, Karl Turner and Emma Hardy, had received during the Brexit debate.
“I think this kind of links through to what we’ve been discussing,” she said. “I think there’s been a coarsening of the political debate because of Brexit.
“I think certainly things have changed in a way that I would never have expected ten years ago. During that Brexit debate there was a picture of me and Karl and Emma on Facebook and comments of how we were all traitors and should be hanged from the nearest post, and it seems especially on social media that people can say these things.
“I never really thought about security or safety in 2005. It certainly changed with the explosion of social media.
“Especially now with David Amess, I think I’m certainly much more conscious of security and more wary. Also, for me it’s my staff. I have staff who work for me up here in Hull too.
“In Westminster it’s different because there’s armed police everywhere and it’s really secure. But up here in your constituency you just become much more aware.”
Dame Diana said she had yet to decide whether she would go back to conducting surgeries in person.
She said: “I’m about and about on Newland Avenue today and I’m going to see someone on Prinny [Princes] Ave later. You can’t not do that and you can’t hide away, although I do my surgeries by Zoom and telephone at the moment.
“I used to go to McDonalds at Asda and North Point Shopping Centre so people could just come up and talk to me, and I’m reflecting on whether I’m going to do that [again] and that’s a bit sad.”
Diana Johnson became Hull’s first female MP when she was elected in 2005. She was appointed as a Dame Commander in the 2020 New Year’s Honours for her charitable and political work.
Sir Geoffrey Cox has been invited to comment.