Trade minister and Boris Johnson ally avoids harsh punishment in corruption case

Conor Burns (L) is a close ally of Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A leading Tory minister and a former assistant to Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been forced to resign after he was found guilty of misusing public office for personal gain.

In a case that is set to draw a strong reaction from anti-corruption campaigners, Conor Burns, who is the minister of state for trade policy, has avoided expulsion from the House of Commons, let alone public prosecution, for what is widely considered to be a serious breach of misconduct in public office.

Conor, who is a close ally of the PM, and served as his assistant when Johnson was foreign secretary, has been the MP for Bournemouth West since 2010.

He was found by Parliament’s standard commissioner to have “put personal interest before the public interest by suggesting that he would take advantage of his public office”.

The case centers on Conor writing to an unnamed person connected to a firm which was embroiled in a financial dispute with the trade minister’s father.

In a letter sent in February 2019 – which used taxpayer-funded parliamentary stationery – Conor threatened to raise his father’s case about repayment of a loan in the House of Commons, before warning the firm they could avoid the “potentially unpleasant experience”.

“My role in the public eye could well attract interest especially if I were to use parliamentary privilege to raise the case”, Conor wrote to the unnamed person in a menacing tone.

For this serious offense of misconduct in public office Conor has been given the proverbial slap on the wrist, a mere seven-day suspension from the House of Commons, the lightest sanction possible, which still requires approval by MPs.