Chris Bryant, chair of the Commons Standards Committee, said: “You talk about people who do their homework. You just can’t do everything at home.
“Every minute he has been prime minister, he has been investigated by the police, the standards commissioner or his ethics adviser. It’s like a theater director who gets bad reviews in newspapers just by shutting down all the newspapers.”
Johnson’s spokesman confirmed that while the prime minister is considering the future of the role, he will be advised by non-independent officials from the cabinet office.
This will include the department-owned property and ethics team, which was tasked with working on the Sue Gray report, which was widely criticized for its lack of scrutiny of events such as the alleged “party of ‘Abba’ on Downing Street.
The spokesman refused to pledge to maintain the independence of the new body, a move that would take back nearly two decades of independent advice from Sir Tony Blair.
On Thursday, Lord Evans of Weardale, chairman of the Committee on Public Living Standards, said the job was created in 2006 due to the “inconvenience of investigations under the ministerial code they are carrying out. the secretary of the cabinet or the persons designated to investigate the allegations on an ad hoc basis ”.
He urged that the new role should be stronger, not weaker, and added: “Anything less would be a step backwards.”