Tory MP Owen Paterson faces suspension over ‘egregious’ breach of lobbying rules
Tory MP Owen Paterson is facing a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons, after an “egregious” breach of parliament’s lobbying rules.
Parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone ruled today that the North Shropshire MP broke lobbying rules during his work for clinical diagnostics firm Randox, where he had been hired since 2015.
He had also been working as a paid consultant for Lynn’s Country Foods since 2016.
Stone found that Paterson approached the Food Standards Agency three times on behalf of Randox and the testing of antibiotics in milk.
He made another seven approaches to the same body on behalf of Lynn’s Country Foods.
Paterson also contacted the now defunct Department for International Development four times on behalf of Randox to speak about blood testing technology.
The Tory MP, and former cabinet minister, did not declare this activity and used his parliamentary office on 16 occasions for business meetings with his clients, according to Stone.
Westminster’s Standards Committee said Paterson’s “actions were an egregious case of paid advocacy, that he repeatedly used his privileged position to benefit two companies for whom he was a paid consultant, and that this has brought the House into disrepute”.
Paterson hit back at Stone’s investigation, claiming that it was a factor in his wife’s suicide last year.
He also said he was “not guilty and a fair process would exonerate me”.
“Last summer, in the midst of the investigation, my wife of 40 years, Rose, took her own life. We will never know definitively what drove her to suicide, but the manner in which this investigation was conducted undoubtedly played a major role,” Paterson said.
“Rose would ask me despairingly every weekend about the progress of the inquiry, convinced that the investigation would go to any lengths to somehow find me in the wrong.”
Paterson claims that Stone “admitted making her mind up before speaking to me or any witnesses” and that the investigation was “a biased process and not fair”.