Thread by @paulwaugh

Lay member of Commons Standards Committee hits out at ‘slanderous’ attacks on anti-sleaze chief

inews.co.uk/news/lay-membe…

My full interview with @TammyBanksy will be on @BBCRadio4's Week In Westminster at 11am today.

It's rare for lay members of the committee to speak publicly, but she lays bare her frustration at the events of the past week - while stressing some good may come out of the 'debacle'

If there's one positive feature of this week, it's to show that members of the public really aren't shut out of the standards system at present.
@TammyBanksy is one of 7 independent members of the 14-strong Standards Cttee, and she is superb.

That's why it was all the more extraordinary that the Govt's proposed (now doomed) committee to 'review' standards failed to include a *single* lay member and wanted MPs only to decide the reform.

Also on Week in Westminster, after @KwasiKwarteng said Kathryn Stone' should consider quitting, ex Justice Secretary @RobertBuckland tells me:
"I don’t want to go back to the time when, if you don’t like the decision, you seek to undermine the referee. That is totally wrong.”

“It’s not sensible for parliamentarians or any of us to start criticising or undermining the position of an independent Commissioner.
“An inherent respect for their role has to be part of the process...

“The lesson has to be that any future reform should really be a matter for a cross party committee, careful consideration and proper debate, rather than a rushed process that inevitably this became.”
And this is from an MP who voted *for* the Leadsom motion.