Labour calls on Jacob Rees-Mogg to resign over lobbying row

Labour has called for Jacob Rees-Mogg to resign from his post as leader of the Commons because of his role in the Owen Paterson lobbying row, while a cabinet minister dismissed it as a “storm in a teacup”.

The shadow leader of the Commons, Thangam Debbonaire, said Rees-Mogg’s position had become “untenable” because of the role he played in getting Conservative MPs to vote for a motion that would spare Paterson the proposed 30-day suspension he was facing for breaking lobbying rules.

Opening the debate on Wednesday, Rees-Mogg defended the decision to link saving Paterson from suspension with another plan â€" set out in the same amendment â€" to review the way the standards committee operates. He brushed aside complaints that it was a mistake to link the two issues, and that the government appeared to be retrospectively changing the rules to protect a former Tory minister.

The following day, after No 10 decided the vote was no longer defensible, Rees-Mogg told MPs it had been mistake to conflate the two issues, while appearing reluctant to accept responsibility.

In an interview with Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Debbonaire said: “If I was him I would be considering my position, and that’s what I think he should do today.” Asked whether she was saying Rees-Mogg should resign, Debbonaire replied: “I think his position is untenable, yes.”

Debbonaire said that, despite the government U-turn on Thursday, Rees-Mogg had left the Commons “in a state of chaos”. She said the motion passed on Wednesday, declining to back the standards committee report into Paterson, still applied, and the government should let MPs vote to rescind it before the Commons begins a short recess on Wednesday.

She also said ministers should rule out giving Paterson a peerage â€" something Downing Street declined to do on Friday.

In an interview with the same programme, the environment secretary, George Eustice, dismissed the controversy about the Paterson vote as a “Westminster storm in a teacup”. He said the government “made a mistake” in proposing the amendment in the way that it did, but he claimed there was widespread support for the principle of changing the standards process to include a right of appeal.

Eustice also said that Sir John Major, the former prime minister, was “wrong” when he claimed in an interview on Saturday that the government’s handling of the matter was “shameful”.

Referring to Major’s criticisms of Brexit, Eustice said: “He’s wrong. I disagree with John Major on a quite a few issues. He’s not somebody whose cue I would normally take.”

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