Colourful life of a true blue Brexiteer who rose up ranks
OWEN Paterson’s 24-year political career was brought to a brutal end after support from his party ebbed away in the face of a public backlash.
The Brexiteer was a true blue Tory at the heart of the traditional wing of the party for more than two decades.
Friends with Boris Johnson and former leader Iain Duncan Smith, it was under
David Cameron that his rise up the ranks reached its peak.
Mr Paterson’s life was hit by tragedy last year when his beloved wife, Rose, took her life.
He said the way the investigation into his activities was carried out had “undoubtedly” played a “major role” in her suicide.
His career began in 1997 when he was elected to the traditional Conservative seat of North Shropshire.
Close to Mr Duncan Smith, he was made his parliamentary private secretary during his friend’s stint as Conservative leader.
David Cameron put him in his top team in opposition and made him Northern Ireland secretary after the Conservatives took power in 2010.
Mr Paterson, 65, then moved to the environment department, overseeing a controversial programme culling badgers to protect cattle from bovine TB.
He had insisted he was not an enemy of badgers, having kept two, Bessie and Baz, as pets.
He was sacked in a reshuffle in 2014 and returned to the back benches. The move freed him up to focus on campaigning for Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Mr Paterson’s euroscepticism was long-held, fuelled by his life before politics when he travelled the world to boost exports for his leather business.
He became frustrated over the excessive regulation.
He “met a young journalist named Boris Johnson” at Prague airport shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, who was quizzing businessmen on their experiences of the damage EU rules had done to them.
“I gave him some leads and we have been in contact ever since,” he said.
But his life outside politics was as colourful as his Parliamentary career.
Mr Paterson and his wife shared a deep love of horse riding. The couple raised £60,000 for the unit at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, in Shropshire, by riding in the Mongol Derby in 2011, which he described as the “toughest horse race in the world”. The gruelling 1,000km course across the wilderness of the Mongolian steppe involved riding for 14 hours a day on semi-wild horses.
Three years ago he broke his back after falling from his horse while riding in Shropshire.