The government will rethink its plans to overhaul the policing of MPs’ conduct after a furious backlash.
On Wednesday, No 10 backed a shake-up of the standards watchdog and blocked the suspension of one of its own former ministers, Owen Paterson.
But it led to accusations of sleaze, with Labour saying the Tories just wanted to “let off one of their own”.
Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg has now confirmed the changes will not go ahead without cross-party support.
He told the Commons there was a “strong feeling” that any change to the standards process “should not be based on a single case”, and Wednesday’s vote had “conflated” the two.
“This link needs to be broken” added Mr Rees-Mogg.
He said the government would come back to MPs with more detailed proposals to change the system after it had held discussions with the other parties.
And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.
Labour’s shadow leader of the House, Thangam Debbonaire said she was “astonished” by the statement, as her opposite number had openly backed the manoeuvre by Tory MPs and the government on Wednesday.
She said her party would “look with interest” at any new proposal, but they continued to back the existing rules on conduct would would not participate “in a parallel process”.