WORCESTER’S MP Robin Walker was the among the 250 Conservatives who have voted to pause a proposed 30 day House of Commons suspension of colleague Owen Paterson.
Mr Walker voted in favour of an amendment which sought to review the way MPs behaviour is policed despite Mr Paterson being found guilty of misusing his position to benefit two companies he worked for.
Allies of the MP claim the system was unfair and proposed a pause of his punishment while a review of the Commons Standards Committee procedure was carried out.
The government ordered its own MPs to vote for the move however 98 Conservatives including Malvern’s MP Harriett Baldwin did not vote.
Another 13 Conservative MPs voted against the amendment along with Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats.
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone last month recommended Mr Paterson be suspended from the Commons for 30 days, after a damning report into his conduct by a committee of MPs including Conservatives.
The report said the former Northern Ireland secretary had breached Commons lobbying rules by making approaches to government bodies about Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods, which employed him as a paid consultant and described his actions as an ‘egregious case of paid advocacy’.
The committee found the North Shropshire MP had used his parliamentary office on 16 occasions for meetings relating to his outside business interests and sent two letters relating to business interests on House of Commons headed notepaper.
However, the former Northern Ireland minister fiercely denied any wrongdoing and said his approaches were within the rules as he was seeking to alert ministers to defects in safety regulations.
Mr Paterson has also claimed he was pronounced guilty ‘without being spoken to’ and that ‘no proper investigation was undertaken’.
More follows….
