SLEAZE PROBE TORY’S 30-DAY BAN
He’s suspended from Commons and could lose his seat after ‘egregious’ breach of rules
TORY former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson was last night facing a 30-day suspension from the Commons and the threat of losing his seat after an excoriating report accused him of an ‘egregious’ breach of lobbying rules.
In a devastating verdict, Parliament’s antisleaze watchdog found him guilty of an ‘egregious case of paid advocacy’ on behalf of two companies – Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods – for which he was acting as a paid consultant.
Mr Paterson still earns £112,000 a year from the firms – £100,000 of which is from clinical diagnostics company Randox, senior parliamentary sources said.
Yesterday, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone said the former environment secretary had repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of the companies, breaking the rules for MPs in the process.
But a defiant Mr Paterson last night emphatically maintained his innocence and claimed the ‘biased’ way the inquiry was carried out was a major factor in the suicide of his wife Rose last year.
In a lengthy statement, the MP for North Shropshire said the process to which he had been subjected did ‘not comply with natural justice’, claimed the inquiry was flawed and alleged that 17 witnesses who came forward to support him were ignored.
Mr Paterson said that in the week before she died, his late wife had told him of her fears that the couple would ‘end our days in humiliation and disgrace’. He even challenged Parliament to waive privilege so he could ‘prove my case in court’ – though officials last night said there was no power to do this even if an MP wished it.
Mr Paterson’s Tory MP supporters say they will vote against imposing the ban when it is put to the whole Commons for approval. His fellow Brexit cheerleaders and former Cabinet ministers David Davis and Sir Iain Duncan Smith are expected to lead the campaign to save his reputation.
In her report yesterday, the Standards Commissioner found that between November 2016 and November 2017, Mr Paterson made three approaches to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) relating to Randox and antibiotics in milk, in breach of the ban on paid advocacy.
He was also found to have made four approaches to ministers at the Department for International Development relating to the company and blood testing technology between October 2016 and January 2017.
And Mr Paterson was found to have made seven approaches to the FSA between November 2017 and July 2018 relating to Lynn’s Country Foods.
The commissioner further found that he failed to declare his interest as a paid consultant to Lynn’s Country Foods in four emails to FSA officials and that he used his parliamentary office for business meetings with his clients on 16 occasions between October 2016 and February 2020.
He also sent two letters relating to his business interests on House of Commons-headed notepaper – the only breach of the rules which he accepted.
In the report, the Committee on Standards said his actions ‘brought the House into disrepute’ and recommended that a motion to suspend Mr Paterson should be tabled for MPs to debate and vote on within five sitting days.
If the Commons backs the recommendations, it could lead to recall proceedings, which would then result in a by-election if ten per cent of Mr Paterson’s constituents sign a petition demanding one. This newspaper has also learned:
The Parliamentary Standards Committee, made up of MPs from all parties and some lay members, which proposed the 30-day ban, considered expelling Mr Paterson completely from the Commons.
Three of the four Tory MPs on the committee – Alberto Costa, Mark Fletcher and Andy Carter – voted in favour of the 30-day ban. The fourth, Sir Bernard Jenkin, ‘recused’ himself from the vote on the grounds of his close friendship with Mr Paterson.
Mr Paterson could have avoided any punishment had he used a little-known Commons rule which says MPs can act as an advocate for a company’s products if they hand back six months’ worth of the money the company pays them as a consultant. It means that in Mr Paterson’s case, if he had paid back £50,000 he would not have broken any rules. But such action cannot be taken retrospectively.
Mr Paterson told the BBC yesterday that his wife told him the week before she died that the commissioner is ‘determined to catch you out’. He said: ‘There is absolutely
‘Brought house into disrepute’ ‘In denial over his behaviour’
no doubt in my mind that the manner in which this inquiry has been conducted, in complete breach of the rules of natural justice, was a major factor in my wife’s decision to hang herself in June last year.’
A source close to the inquiry hit back at his claim that the way it was conducted was a central cause of his wife’s death. ‘The time to say that was at the inquest into her death and Mr Paterson did not do that,’ said the source.
The source also defended Miss Stone: ‘She has conducted herself properly at all stages and suspended the investigation when Rose died as a mark of respect.
‘Whether or not an MP is sanctioned cannot depend on the impact on his family. Mr Paterson is in denial over his behaviour and needs to come to terms with it and not bring his wife into it.’
Downing Street said a motion to suspend Mr Paterson will be moved in the Commons in due course.
A spokesman for Mr Paterson declined to say how much he had received in total from Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods.
Commons sleaze probe ‘played huge role’ in my wife’s suicide, says MP Aintree chief ‘feared losing job’ over husband’s lobbying