Protecting Paterson – the Tory gift to the Opposition
Backing Paterson doesn’t look smart
Nothing illustrates the feeling of confidence amongst BoJo’s Tories than their efforts to protect Owen Paterson. That ministers should even contemplate anything other than let the agreed process go forwards opens the party up to the allegations of “sleaze” which those of us who are old enough to remember were what created the political climate that saw Blair win his landslide victory at GE1997.
All the party is seeking to do is get round the report of an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, that concluded Paterson used his position as an MP to benefit two firms who paid him as a consultant. Even more damning was her assertion that he’d done this repeatedly.
My advice to CON MPs with majorities of less than 5% is to be very careful about backing this proposal because it will be used against them repeatedly.
I don’t know about the Labour party but I can see LD campaigners in CON seats that voted Remain where they are the challenger getting ready to produce special “Sleaze” editions of their newsletters if their MP votes for it.
A big mistake by BoJo.