The Committee found Paterson’s lobbying exploits amounted to nearly three times his annual parliamentary salary
A former Tory minister has been found to have “repeatedly used his privileged position” to benefit companies he worked for.
Owen Paterson is facing a 30-day-suspension from the House of Commons, after it was revealed he’d worked as a paid consultant for Lynn’s Country Foods, a meat processor and Randox, a clinical diagnosis company.
Randox Laboratories were controversially awarded around £475 million by the government to manufacture covid-19 test kits, despite having no prior experience in the field in July 2020.
Paterson, the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Former Environment Secretary, was found in breach of the rule prohibiting paid advocacy.
The egregious breach of lobbying rules demonstrated a “failure to uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life”.
The committee found “no previous case of paid advocacy has seen so many breaches or such a clear pattern of behaviour in failing to separate private and public interests”.
The report also found Paterson’s lobbying exploits amounted to nearly three times his annual parliamentary salary
Following a two-year investigation, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found Paterson had made multiple approaches to government departments and ministers for the two companies.
Paterson repeatedly failed to declare his paid interests in either company.
While the Committee have recommended he be suspended from the the Commons for 30 days, the Tory MP faces losing his parliamentary seat.
If an MP is suspended for more than 10 sitting days by a Parliamentary committee, this can automatically trigger a recall petition, which in turn, could lead to a by-election.
The lobbying-minister will face a vote by MPs to decide his fate within the next five days.
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