Owen Paterson has resigned as MP for North Shropshire. Mr Paterson, who was facing suspension from the Commons over a finding he had accepted payment for lobbying activities but insisted he was innocent, said: “I will remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics.”
It came shortly after Boris Johnson’s government completed a full U-turn on yesterday’s vote to set aside recommendations Mr Paterson be suspended and create a new sleaze system for parliament.
A new vote was set to take place next week allowing MPs to decide on Mr Paterson’s suspension and undo the creation of Andrea Leadsom’s new standards regime. The plan, for which the government whipped its MPs sparking a huge backlash, did not even get off the ground on Thursday.
Lord Evans, chair of the independent committee on standards in public life, said this morning the “extraordinary proposal [was] deeply at odds with the best traditions of British democracy”, adding it “cannot be right this was accompanied by repeated attempts to question the integrity of the commissioner on standards herself”.
Paterson to work to promote cause of suicide prevention
Owen Paterson, who has just resigned as an MP after 24 years representing North Shropshire, says he will “remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics”.
He added: “I intend to devote myself to public service in whatever ways I can, but especially in the world of suicide prevention.”
Mr Paterson’s wife Rose died by suicide.
Paterson insists he is innocent and says last two years have been ‘indescribable nightmare’
Owen Paterson has said the last two years “have been an indescribable nightmare for my family and me”, amid the investigation into his lobbying activities.
However he insisted he was innocent of wrongdoing. He added: “I acted at all times in the interests of public health and safety.”
His resignation statement continued: “I, my family and those closest to me know the same. I am unable to clear my name under the current system.
“Far, far worse than having my honesty questioned was, of course, the suicide of my beloved and wonderful wife, Rose.
“She was everything to my children and me. We miss her everyday and the world will always be grey, sad and ultimately meaningless without her.”
Mr Paterson said his children had asked him to leave politics after seeing their mother’s suicide mocked.
“I do not want my wife’s memory and reputation to become a political football,” he said.
Owen Paterson quits as MP
Owen Paterson has resigned as MP for North Shropshire.
He said: “I will remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics.”
Tory MP reappointed as Gove aide less than 24 hours after losing job for defying government
Angela Richardson has been reappointed to her role as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove less than 24 hours after being dismissed for defying the government on a vote to prevent Owen Paterson’s suspension, writes Ashley Cowburn.
The MP’s prompt return from a brief stint on the backbenches came after the government was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn, ditching plans for a Conservative-dominated committee to rewrite Commons sleaze rules.
No 10 denies Cummings’ claim about govt’s ‘preemptive strike’ on standards commissioner
Downing Street has denied claims that proposals to overhaul the standards process were a “preemptive strike” on commissioner Kathryn Stone to protect Boris Johnson’s own interests.
The PM’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings made the accusation on Twitter, but the PM’s official spokesman, when asked if that was the case, said: “No.”
Pressed if Mr Johnson felt he made a mistake, his spokesman said the PM “fully recognises the strength of feeling in the House … and therefore understands that it’s right to change the approach and to decouple those two issues”.
Here’s that tweet by Cummings:
22 Tory MPs investigated by parliament’s watchdog voted to overhaul it
A group of 22 Conservative MPs who voted for the government’s botched overhaul of parliament’s disciplinary process have been investigated by the conduct watchdog, writes Adam Forrest.
Boris Johnson’s government was forced into an extraordinary U-turn over controversial plans to rip up the standards system after widespread outrage.
Paterson found out about U-turn in shops – from a journalist
Owen Paterson, the former Tory minister who was the focus of yesterday’s standards vote, is said to have had no idea Downing Street was performing a U-turn on the decision to delay his immediate suspension.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, the broadcaster’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the MP was in a supermarket when he got the news – on a phone call from a BBC journalist.
MPs had voted 250 to 232 in favour of an amendment to the Commons standards procedure, which would have seen a new committee – with a Tory majority – decide Mr Paterson’s fate. However, ministers were forced to backtrack following reprisal from inside and outside Westminster.
Paterson watches on as MP debate about his suspension in the Commons
” height=”726″ width=”982″ srcset=”https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/11/04/08/PA-63502763.jpg?width=640&auto=webp&quality=75 640w” layout=”responsive” class=”i-amphtml-layout-responsive i-amphtml-layout-size-defined” i-amphtml-layout=”responsive”> Paterson watches on as MP debate about his suspension in the Commons
Conservative MP says ‘thugs’ vandalised his office after sleaze vote
Vandals painted the slogan “Tory sleaze” on the outside of a Conservative MP’s constituency office after he backed yesterday’s amendment on standards investigations.
Peter Bone said it had been “very worrying for the staff”.
He told the PA news agency: “When we get to the situation where property can be vandalised and people can be threatened, then there is something gone very wrong with our democracy.
“Of course, these thugs who attacked my property – and we don’t know who they are – they don’t put an alternative case and argue for that to be put forward or event stand against me for the seat of Wellingborough. They just use violence and intimidation.
“Well, I can tell them flat that violence and intimidation is not going to change the way I vote on issues. It is just totally unacceptable.”
Additional reporting by PA Media
Tory sleaze defence ‘as dodgy as they come,’ says Starmer
Keir Starmer has been discussing the government’s latest sleaze scandal on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show, saying it is “as dodgy” an incident as he has seen in Westminster in six years.
The Labour leader rubbished the claim, made by some Tories yesterday, that there was no right for MPs to appeal the findings of a standards report.
“The independent commissioner comes to a decision and then there is an appeal to the standards committee,” he said. “And that appeal involves that individual, Owen Paterson, being able to put in, with his lawyers, his appeal points in writing and also to make his case in person which he did. So he’s been through the appeal.”
Sir Keir added he had “been six years in politics and many years as a lawyer”, and that he had “heard some really, really dodgy defences [but] that is as dodgy as they come”.
He also insisted his party will not get involved in cross-party talks on proposals to reform the standards system, as suggested today by Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg.
“What the government wants to do is get rid of the independent commissioner and replace it with a group of politicians to judge our own behaviour. I can’t think of anything that’s more backward than that … nobody could possibly think that that’s a good idea,” Sir Keir told Mr Vine.
Insulate Britain: 50 protesters glue hands and feet to road outside parliament
About 50 Insulate Britain protesters have glued their hands and feet to the floor as they sat in the street outside the UK parliament.
Demonstrators blocked two roads Parliament Square on Thursday morning, with police working to remove protesters who had stuck themselves to the ground.
The Metropolitan Police said it had arrested 34 people in connection with the protest.
