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6 LondraGazete.com/English Londra Gazete, 05 May 2022

Speaker calls for ‘radical’

reform of UK parliament

PARLIAMENT is facing a reck-
oning to improve its reputation
after a senior Tory admitting he
twice watched pornography in
the Commons capped a series of
scandals.
Neil Parish bowed to pressure
to say he would resign as MP for
Tiverton and Honiton after view-
ing the material in the chamber
Johnson ‘absolutely will be PM’ even in what he called a “moment of
madness”.
if local election results are dismal The 65-year-old select com-
mittee chair, who is a farmer by
BORIS Johnson will “absolute- delivered is really a remarkable trade, said he first accidentally
ly” still be leader after the local series of successes. viewed porn after looking at trac-
elections no matter how dismal “I think Brexit, he delivered on tors online before later acting de-
the results are for the Tories, a that, the fact he was very widely liberately. Commons Speaker Sir
Cabinet member has insisted. appreciated in Ukraine, he’s been Lindsay Hoyle is calling for “rad-
Kwasi Kwarteng said the Prime widely hailed as someone who ical” reform to working practices
Minister’s leadership is not “at has led the overseas effort to help after a series of bullying and sex-
threat at all” as voters go to the Ukraine and also look at the vac- ual misconduct offences involv- feared to have hit a new low. to choose them? “In my opinion,
polls with a new scandal of a cine rollout, that was a great bit ing MPs. Calling for urgent ac- Writing in the Observer, Sir it is time to consider radical ac-
porn-watching Conservative on of success.” tion, Sir Lindsay suggested staff Lindsay said: “I believe it is time tion, and review structures and
top of partygate. Pressed whether no matter should no longer be employed by we reviewed our working practic- processes that could make a dif-
There were reports that former what happens in the polls Mr the parliamentarians they work es, and particularly whether it is ference.
foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt Johnson is safe, he replied “abso- for to address a series of “serious right that individual MPs are the Some serious allegations have
could launch a leadership bid if lutely”. allegations”. employers of their staff. been made, and we must address
Mr Johnson is forced from power The Mail on Sunday reported He was considering moving to Should someone else – or an them as a matter of urgency. It is
in the wake of Thursday’s elec- that allies of Mr Hunt, who was an outside body employing aides outside body – employ the staff, imperative we do the right thing
tions. also a longstanding health secre- as Parliament’s reputation was as long as the MP has the right by staff and MPs as well...”
Mr Kwarteng, the Business Sec- tary, is ready to brand himself a
retary, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On “safe pair of hands” if the time
Sunday: “I don’t think his leader- comes to run for the Tory leader-
ship is at threat at all, what he’s ship. No10 steps up pressure on passport delays

DOWNING Street has stepped
Minister says buy value products up the pressure on Passport Of-
fice chiefs to clear major delays
over brand name food in applications which have left
millions fearing travel chaos this
A cabinet minister has suggest- the lowest in Europe, partly be- summer.
ed families struggling to make cause we’ve got that very compet- Cabinet Office Minister Steve
ends meet should buy “value” food itive market,” Mr Eustice told Kay Barclay discussed the crisis with
rather than branded products. Burley on Sky News. bosses from the Passport Office
Environment Secretary George “There used to be for the poorest last week amid concerns that the
Eustice admitted some households 20 per cent of households, about service is struggling to handle a
will be squeezed due to the rising 16 per cent of their income used surge in applications following
cost of living and said they should to go on food. That dropped a few the Covid-19 pandemic.
consider switching to cheaper Prime Minister Boris Johnson
product alternatives to help “man- years ago to about 14 per cent. last week threatened to “privatise
age” their budgets. “It’s going to rise again now, the arse” off the Passport Office
It comes at a time when families but generally speaking, what peo- unless the service was able to
are also facing increasing financial ple find is that by going for some meet the massive increase in de- “Clearly the focus is not on pri- cause of restrictions in interna-
pressure due to tax rises and spi- sort of value brands rather than mand which has seen five million vatisation, it’s on improving the tional travel”.
ralling energy costs. own-branded products, that they applications since travel restric- service whether it’s in public ser- The Passport Office predicts
“If you look at household spend- can actually contain and manage tions were lifted. vice or private hands. 9.5m British passport applica-
ing on food in the UK, it’s actually their household budget.” Mr Johnson’s official spokes- “There is a large amount of tions will be made this year and
man said on Tuesday that while work being done in the Home Of- in March 2022 alone, it processed
the Prime Minister’s focus was fice and Passport Office to clear more than 1m new passport ap-
not on privatisation, he wanted the backlog.” plications, the highest output on
to see the service improved. The Passport Office has insist- record.
“The point being made is we ed “there is no backlog in pass- It says the vast majority of all
want the service to improve. We port processing as a result of the passport applications are being
don’t think it’s right that hard coronavirus pandemic”. dealt with well within 10 weeks
working people wanting to go on However it has blamed “unprec- and has stepped up staffing lev-
holiday are seeing these sorts of edented demand as more than 5 els but there have been reports of
delays,” Mr Johnson’s spokesman million people delayed applying 700,000 applications still await-
said. for passports during Covid-19 be- ing clearance.