Are male MPs better at behaving badly? Just look at the latest Tory sleaze scandal

The defining feature of this latest round of Tory sleaze is its complete and overwhelming maleness, writes Marie Le Conte

Owen Paterson resigned as MP for North Shropshire in the fallout (Getty)

There is an angle to the current sleaze omnishambles that has received little attention so far, and which I would like to bring up. In order to do so, I need to run through the events of the past week again.

In short, it all began when the standards committee investigated the extracurricular activities of Owen Paterson (a man) and concluded he should be suspended from the Commons for 30 days. The vote was set for last Wednesday; in the days leading up to it, MPs and allies of Paterson including Bernard Jenkin (a man) set out to try and spare their friend, and change the system altogether.

An amendment was drafted, but Paterson’s pals felt none of them could put their name to it as it would look like a stitch up. Instead, they convened in the office of chief whip Mark Spencer (a man) and asked Andrea Leadsom (a woman) to put forward the amendment herself. If passed, it would replace the current system with a new committee of MPs, chaired by John Whittingdale (a man).

Among the people pushing for this were No 10 adviser Henry Newman (a man) and former leader Iain Duncan Smith (a man). As media reports have since suggested, the move also had the wholehearted backing of the prime minister, Boris Johnson (a man). On the day, the secretary of state effectively making the case for the amendment in the chamber was Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg (a man).

Though the government eventually U-turned and Paterson resigned, the fallout from the scandal is still unfolding. On Sunday, The Guardian reported that the standards committee was considering banning MPs from becoming consultants or advisers. The move, they said, would affect 30 – mostly Conservative – MPs, 29 men and one woman.

Elsewhere, an investigation conducted by The Sunday Times and openDemocracy found that over the past seven years, every Conservative Party treasurer donated at least £3m to the party and all but one were then offered a seat in the House of Lords. The Conservative Party is yet to have a female treasurer.

Oh, and how could we forget? Earlier this month, Conservative MP Rob Roberts (a man) was readmitted into the party after a 12-week suspension, which he got for sexually harassing a member of his staff.

The more eagle-eyed among you have probably managed to read between the lines and spot the point I have been trying to make. The defining feature of this latest round of Tory sleaze is its complete and overwhelming maleness.

This is one thing it has in common with the Tory sleaze of the 1990s. Under John Major’s premiership, Neil Hamilton (a man) and Tim Smith (a man) became embroiled in the cash for questions scandals. Jerry Wiggin (a man), also shone in his own cash for amendments controversy. Numerous other MPs (all men) spectacularly failed to keep it in their pants, with predictable consequences.

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Still, there is one fairly major difference between the sleazy incidents of 25 years ago and recent events. In the election of 1992, only 20 female Conservative MPs were elected, out of 336. In 2019, that figure rose to 87 out of 365.

In the Nineties, practically all Tory scandals concerned men because only 6 per cent of their benches were women. Although a quarter of their MPs are now female, the past few weeks have shown us that men are simply better at behaving badly.

There is no doubt that we’ll see a renewed focus on ways to make members of parliament conduct themselves more honourably. There is already talk of banning second jobs for MPs, and it is likely that future rule breakers will receive harsher punishments than they once did.

Maybe these measures will work, but it’s worth wondering whether they’re enough. This is where my message to Conservative women comes in. Ladies, I know I am not one of you, so it is not my decision to make, but have you considered outing the men from your party? Not forever – only until they show they can act reasonably. Think about it – and thank me later.