This is how to keep politicians like Boris Johnson honest

The prime minister issued a written statement correcting a comment he made about the Russian-Israeli owner of Chelsea Football Club. We need to see more of this, writes John Rentoul

In a democracy, we rely on a free people, informed by a free media, to hold politicians like Boris Johnson to account (Getty)

Boris Johnson is often accused of misleading parliament, and sometimes of doing so “knowingly”, which is contrary to the ministerial code – although it seems a problem that the code is enforced by the prime minister himself. How can the rules be improved? I hosted a question and answer session with Independent readers on this subject on Friday.

The issue was unexpectedly topical, as the prime minister had just issued a written statement correcting something he had said in answer to questions on his Ukraine statement in the Commons on Tuesday. He said Roman Abramovich, the Russian-Israeli owner of Chelsea Football Club, was “already facing sanctions”. In the correction on Wednesday, he said: “Roman Abramovich has not been the subject of targeted measures.” This is the sort of thing that many of us want to see more of. But how?

One proposal is that the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, currently Lord Geidt, should have the power to make their own investigations, rather than waiting for the prime minister to refer things to them. Another is that they should have legal powers to enforce his rulings – Lord Geidt’s predecessor, Sir Alex Allan, resigned because Johnson overruled his finding that Priti Patel was guilty of bullying civil servants.