Category Archives: Owen Paterson

Owen Paterson’s lawyers admit irony of his seeking ECHR’s help

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Representatives of Eurosceptic insist he had been left with no option but to appeal to European court of human rights

Lawyers for Owen Paterson have admitted the irony of the former MP bringing a case against the UK government at the European court of human rights, despite having previously called on Britain to “break free” of the court entirely.

Representatives for Paterson, a prominent Eurosceptic Conservative who resigned last year in the midst of a lobbying scandal, issued a statement on Monday insisting he had been left with no option but to appeal to a court whose authority he had previously questioned.

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‘All bets are off now’: a torrid week when Johnson’s balloon was burst

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Last week’s byelection result laid bare the growing anger felt towards the PM – both from outside and within his own party

Shortly after Owen Paterson resigned as the Tory MP for North Shropshire in early November, Helen Morgan, who had been trounced when she stood as Liberal Democrat candidate at the last general election, rang her party’s HQ in London with a message that took senior officials by surprise.

“She told us that we really had a chance in the byelection, that we had to throw everything at it. Initially there was a lot of scepticism,” said a party official. “Nobody really believed it.”

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Don’t call it sleaze, call it corruption – why scandal haunts Boris Johnson’s government

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From contracts for mates to flat makeovers and illicit parties, barely a day passes without a crisis at No 10. But using the tabloid language of the 90s doesn’t scratch the surface of this government’s sins

Think of bonking. Not the activity, but the word. As a shorthand for sex, it was popularised, if not invented, by the tabloid press in the 90s – back then, “Bonking Boris” referred to a former Wimbledon champion rather than a future prime minister. You can see why it appealed. “Bonking” slipped easily under the bar prohibiting expletives in family newspapers; it sounded fun rather than pornographic. It was clear and direct, yet had all the advantages of euphemism.

Now think of sleaze. As it happens, that word performed a similar role in the same period. It could be hurled at politicians – specifically the Conservative government of John Major – relatively free of legal risk. You could say an MP or minister was “mired in sleaze” without having to prove that they had broken a specific law. It was handy.

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Johnson faces trust crisis as sleaze shatters faith in MPs

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Poll reveals huge public cynicism, with just 5% of respondents believing politicians work for public good

Trust in politicians to act in the national interest rather than for themselves has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to figures contained in a disturbing new study into the state of British democracy.

The polling data from YouGov for the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows a particularly sharp fall in trust in the few weeks since the Owen Paterson scandal triggered a rash of Tory sleaze scandals.

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Boris Johnson urged to stop MPs cutting tax bills on second jobs

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Critics call for planned rule change on outside work to include restricting use of personal companies to avoid tax

Critics have urged Boris Johnson to restrict MPs using personal companies to skirt tax bills under the planned new rules on second jobs, as the Conservative sleaze row continues to dominate Westminster.

Using a personal company to accept payments for consultancy work can provide benefits such as avoiding income tax of up to 45% at source on the earnings, with an investigation by the Times finding multiple MPs were paid in total about £1m via the arrangements.

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Randox: how one-man-band operation became a Covid testing giant

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Healthcare firm named in Owen Paterson lobbying scandal has won £500m in UK government contracts

As the Covid-19 pandemic swept towards the UK, a senior employee of the healthcare firm Randox addressed an audience of horse racing royalty, gathered amid the neoclassical splendour of St George’s Hall in Liverpool.

Randox, which had garnered a role within the “sport of kings” via its sponsorship of the Grand National, had developed a test for Covid-19, he told them.

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At least a quarter of Tory MPs have second jobs, earning over £4m a year

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More than 90 Tory members do paid work on the side compared with very few Labour politicians, finds analysis

More than a quarter of Tory MPs have second jobs with firms whose activities range from gambling to private healthcare, making more than £4m in extra earnings in a year, Guardian analysis has found.

The register of MPs’ interests shows that more than 90 out of 360 Tories have extra jobs on top of their work in parliament, compared with three from Labour. They are overwhelmingly older and 86% are men. The highest earners were all former cabinet ministers.

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Johnson refuses to apologise over Paterson vote after No 10 says he will miss sleaze debate – UK politics live

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Latest updates: prime minister also does not rule out peerage for Paterson; No 10 says PM will not attend debate as he will be on a train then

The Downing Street lobby briefing is over, and the prime minister’s spokesman has confirmed that Boris Johnson will not be speaking in, or attending, the sleaze/standards/corruption debate in the Commons this afternoon.

And he won’t be watching it on the TV in his office afterwards; he is on a visit to a hospital in the north-east. No 10 signalled that he would not be able to be able to return to London in time for the debate because the rail timetable did not allow this.

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MPs could be barred from consultancy roles in sleaze clampdown

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Watchdog considers tightening restrictions on MPs’ second jobs which could affect 30 parliamentarians

MPs could be banned from having consultancy jobs like Owen Paterson’s under plans for a clampdown on sleaze being considered by the Commons standards committee.

The prospect of tightened restrictions on MPs’ second jobs is to be decided within weeks and could affect more than 30 parliamentarians earning between £180,000 and hundreds of pounds a year on top of their £82,000 salary.

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Return of the sleazy party: the Conservatives and the Owen Paterson affair

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As No 10 ham-fistedly let the scandal spread, was this about saving an old Brexit ally or protecting the PM himself?

A Conservative MP who entered parliament in 2010 began to receive what he described as a series of “unusually persistent” texts from his Tory whip last week. The member in question had been part of the Conservative intake that followed the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009.

The arrival of this new group at Westminster – many of them with impressive previous careers outside politics – was supposed to demonstrate, as David Cameron said at the time, that his party was reforming its ways, ridding itself of sleaze.

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Lobbying for ‘naked’ bacon: how the Owen Paterson scandal began

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Route to resignation was marked out more than two years ago following a Guardian investigation

The route to Owen Paterson’s resignation on Thursday afternoon was marked out more than two years ago, when in 2019 the Guardian exposed his lobbying on behalf of two companies from whom he has received at least £500,000 in payments.

Documents released following freedom of information requests revealed that the MP had repeatedly demanded access to ministers and regulators on behalf of his paying clients. This raised the question of whether he had broken parliamentary rules that prohibit MPs from undertaking paid advocacy– rules that have existed in various forms since the 17th century.

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Tories engulfed in sleaze crisis after U-turn and Owen Paterson resignation

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Conservative MPs react with fury at ‘own goal’ after PM ditches bid to shield former minister from lobbying claims

Boris Johnson was engulfed in a sleaze crisis following a humiliating government U-turn that saw veteran Tory MP Owen Paterson resign from parliament after Downing Street ditched a bid to shield him from lobbying claims.

Tory MPs reacted with fury after Johnson withdrew his backing from Paterson, less than 24 hours after ordering them to support a controversial amendment tearing up House of Commons anti-sleaze rules to protect him.

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MP Owen Paterson resigns from ‘cruel world of politics’

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Tory MP was facing suspension after standards watchdog found he had broken lobbying rules

Owen Paterson has announced his resignation as MP for North Shropshire, after Boris Johnson made clear he would no longer seek to prevent the former cabinet minister from being punished by parliament for lobbying.

“I will remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics,” the MP for North Shropshire said in a statement.

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