Zac Goldsmith accuses Adonis of telling 'malicious lies'

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The Labour politician’s insult backfired with Twitter users defending prime minister Boris Johnson. User omnisophos tweeted: “That’s a good meme. But sadly your side offer nothing more. Starmer can’t be trusted either”. Another, failedthecut, replied to the politician, who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, with: “…look in the mirror son”.

Another user, Mike, tweeted: “How’s that Remain campaign going Andrew? Don’t worry, most of the EU businesses will be UK businesses soon!”.

And NiceCupTea tweeted sarcastically: “Blair is our saviour. All praise him and his peaceful ways”.

Lord Adonis recently criticised the Government over speculation it is planning to scrap the Birmingham to Leeds leg of the HS2 rail project.

The Department for Transport is expected to announce new plans for the scheme on November 18 as part of the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan.

Lord Adonis, speaking in the House of Lords, asked how the Government squared cancelling the eastern leg of HS2 with its levelling up agenda.

The former Transport Secretary claimed doing so would introduce an east west divide in the country and be equivalent to the Victorians building railways in the western part of the UK, but leaving the eastern side with canals.

Lord Greenhalgh replied: “The most important thing for government is to back up the investment we have in transport infrastructure in our city regions and we’ve committed £5.7 billion in transport settlements for those regions. Decisions around high speed rail will be taken in due course.”

READ MORE ON PRITI PATEL CANCELLING A MIGRANT CRISIS TRIP TO PARIS

Lord Adonis’s appearance in the House of Lords follows his failure to register his directorship of the European Movement of the United Kingdom Ltd, which describes Brexit as a “historic, national mistake” on its website.

Dirk Hazell, who is the leader of the UK European People’s Party, reported the former minister to the House of Lords’ Commissioner for Standards in October.

Lord Adonis had registered himself as chairman of the “cross-party organisation working to build closer relationships with the EU that we believe will benefit our country”.

He believed this meant he was not required to disclose that he was also a director of the company, but under the House of Lords’ Code of Conduct for Members rules, all peers must declare every company they are involved in.

DON’T MISS: 
BBC presenter resigns with ‘immediate effect’ [REPORT] 
Nexit fury as Shell leaves Netherlands to move to Brexit Britain [LATEST] 
Priti Patel cancels migrant crisis trip to France amid vow to stop … [REVEALED]

The anti-Brexit peer failed to do so and was judged to have committed a “minor” breach of the rules.

Commissioner for standards Akbar Khan wrote in a report that the code requires all directorships to be registered even when the company is simply the corporate arm of a separately registered organisation.

He noted: “While I accept that Lord Adonis thought he had satisfied the requirements of the code, he failed to register an interest as required by the Code of Conduct.

“I conclude that Lord Adonis is in breach of paragraph 12 of the Code of Conduct.

“I consider this to be a minor breach of the code and one for which remedial action is an appropriate outcome.”

On top of correcting his Register of Interests, Mr Khan proposed Lord Adonis write a letter of apology to Lord Mance who is chairman of the Conduct Committee, which Lord Adonis has done.

Mr Khan added: “I am grateful to Lord Adonis for his cooperation in this matter and for his prompt response.”

In the apology, Lord Adonis said the breach was accidental, accepted the finding and apologised to the chairman of the standards committee for the minor breach which was “entirely inadvertent” on his part.

Source: Read Full Article