Harriet Harman seeks sleaze watchdog role after chairing Johnson probe

Harriet Harman, the veteran Labour MP who chaired the probe that ruled Boris Johnson had lied to MPs over partygate, is now bidding to head up a key sleaze watchdog in Parliament.

The senior Labour parliamentarian has thrown her hat in the ring to replace party colleague Chris Bryant as chair of the Commons Standards Committee.

It comes after Mr Bryant was appointed shadow minister for creative industries and digital by Sir Keir Starmer.

Ms Harman confirmed that she was seeking election to the role on Thursday.

In a post on Twitter, now known as X, she thanked Mr Bryant for his “leadership of Parliament’s Committee on Standards”.

“There’s now a vacancy for Chair. I am putting my name forward for election.”

Ms Harman chaired the seven-person cross-party Privileges Committee inquiry into Mr Johnson, which in June found that the former prime minister had committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament by deliberately misleading the Commons with his partygate denials.

The powerful Committee on Standards works alongside the Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards to oversee MPs’ conduct and make decisions on individual complaints.

Commons rules mean the chair of the Standards Committee must come from the Opposition, so Mr Bryant’s successor has to be a Labour MP elected in a secret ballot of the House.

Ms Harman has already confirmed that she plans to stand down at the next election, after nearly 40 years as an MP.

It means that if successful she will be in the role until the Prime Minister calls the next election, expected before January 2025.