A cabinet minister has apologised after he cast doubt over the future of parliament's sleaze investigator in a Sky News interview.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has written to Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, to express his"regret" after heIn his letter to Ms Stone, sent 11 days after he made the comments, Mr Kwarteng admitted he"should have chosen my words more carefully" when he defended the government's actions over the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal.
After Conservative MPs, encouraged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, voted to stop Mr Paterson being suspended from the House of Commons - as well as to overhaul parliament's standards rules - Mr Kwarteng had said it was"difficult to see" a future for Ms Stone. Ms Stone had recommended a 30-day ban from the Commons for Mr Paterson after she found he had broken lobbying rules over his £110,000 per year work for two private companies.When Tory MPs rejected Ms Stone's recommendation in a Commons vote and saved Mr Paterson, Mr Kwarteng said he was not calling for the commissioner's resignation.
But he added:"It's up to anyone where they've made a judgement and people have sought to change that to consider their position, that's a natural thing."
He's part of the useless Eton cabal within the Tory Government