PUBLISHED: 00:22, 7 October 2024 | UPDATED: 01:22, 7 October 2024
When he resigned from Parliament in a lobbying scandal, Owen Paterson’s reputation was in tatters. But the former Tory Cabinet minister is battling to clear his name – with a powerful new ally.
I can disclose that Sir Anthony Hooper KC, a former Appeal Court judge, has raised serious questions about the case.
In November 2021, the all-party Commons privileges committee branded Paterson’s work for two firms ‘an egregious case of paid advocacy’. It recommended his suspension from Parliament for 30 days. He quit as the MP for North Shropshire and the Tories lost the subsequent by-election.
As the inquiry by parliamentary commissioner Kathryn Stone dragged into a second year, Paterson’s wife, Rose, took her own life.

Ms Stone never spoke to any of Paterson’s 19 witnesses, the MP himself spoke to the standards committee for only 15 minutes and his lawyers were not allowed to speak at all.
Sir Anthony, who’s independently reviewed the case, says: ‘The commissioner had decided Mr Paterson had breached the rules before receiving witness evidence supporting Owen Paterson’s explanations.’
A letter from Paterson with Sir Anthony’s views is now on Sir Keir Starmer’s desk. Will the Prime Minister, a former lawyer, look at the case again?
Overheard in Parliament last week: ‘I bet Sir Keir Starmer’s new pet cat stays warm this winter.’
Sandi smitten by Bill's charms
Sandi Toksvig, an out and proud gay woman, says of Bill Clinton: ‘I was backstage waiting to introduce [him]. We had about ten minutes just the two of us. And despite the fact that from the age of four I knew what I wanted, as I stood there with Bill I thought, “Monica, I totally understand.” He’s mesmerising. Oh my God, irresistible magnetism.
'In that moment I was the only person on the planet and it was so fascinating.’
Sue Gray may have quit, but Lord Alli, at the centre of the freebiegate row, is still hanging around like a bad smell.
Alli targeted the Prime Minister early: he gave £100,000 to Starmer’s Labour leadership bid in 2020. He also bunged £50,000 to Angela Rayner’s campaign to be deputy leader. How much of that did they spend on clothes?
Labour MP Laura Kyrke-Smith is holding advice surgeries for pensions with Age UK. Yet that’s the charity which has led opposition to Labour slashing pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.
The new Aylesbury MP voted to cut the benefit. Does she understand the meaning of hypocrisy?
A devastating observation from former minister and Mail columnist Nadine Dorries on the Tory leadership contest: ‘Did anyone notice how Kemi Badenoch said in her speech: “We’re going to have such fun in opposition,” and then giggled? Being in opposition is a miserable thing. Ask the pensioners who have lost their winter fuel allowance. They don’t think it’s funny.’ Quite.
Will Labour’s move to ban outdoor smoking in pub gardens extend to the Thames-side terrace at the House of Commons? Don’t hold your breath.
Balls in Lederhosen? Nein danke!
Former Labour minister turned Strictly Come Dancing star Ed Balls has revealed another side to his artistic nature.
On a family holiday in Salzburg, he joined a four-hour Sound Of Music bicycle tour.
His wife, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, wanted to make it more authentic. ‘So on the train to Salzburg she made neckerchiefs for our girls with this curtain material, and lederhosen, and we wore them all day going round singing the songs.’ Ed Balls in lederhosen? Not a pretty sight.
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