British Tory MP Owen Paterson Resigns Amidst Scandal
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The accusations directed at Paterson dragged Boris Johnson's government into a reputational quagmire.
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British Conservative MP Owen Paterson Resigns Amidst Scandal
Tory MP Owen Paterson has resigned following the recent lobbying debacle.
The former cabinet minister has been a member of parliament for over 24 years, which aggravated the charges directed towards him by the parliament's independent sleaze investigator and led to the recommendation of suspending him for 30 days.
The Conservative MP, voted in for North Shropshire at the 1997 general election, announced his resignation via a Twitter post where he declared that he had "with much sadness decided to resign as the MP for North Shropshire."
My statement today: pic.twitter.com/gZocV3WIwS
— Owen Paterson (@OwenPaterson) November 4, 2021
Paterson's decision may have come as a surprise for many as Conservative MPs, encouraged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, passed a motion on Wednesday in favor of dismissing Paterson's suspension.
Johnson's government was subsequently accused of "corruption".
Paterson's corruption scandal
The inquiry launched by Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, found that Owen Paterson recurrently lobbied on behalf of Randox and Lynn's Country Foods, two private companies paying the Conservative MP £100,000 ($135,000) per year.
The investigation concluded by describing the whole affair as an "egregious case of paid advocacy".
Despite Paterson's attempt at deflecting accusation by arguing that most of his approaches fall under the "serious wrong" exemption in the lobbying rules, the committee assured that with the exception of one meeting, all of the MP's approaches are illegal.
