Paterson escapes censure as Tory move to let him off passes by narrow margin – with many Labour MPs not voting
Tory MP Owen Paterson has survived a ruling by the Commons Standards Committee after a Tory motion to block the committee’s recommendation to suspend him from the House for thirty ‘sitting days’ succeeded by just eighteen votes after a desperate scramble by the party leadership. The suspension risked triggering a by-election.
Paterson was found unanimously by the committee to have ‘repeatedly’ committed ‘egregious’ breaches of the MPs’ code of conduct when he lobbied on behalf of companies that were paying him a total of £112,000 a year, but now escapes censure after government whips corralled Conservative MPs into supporting the parliamentary dodge.
Twenty-eight Labour MPs did not vote. A number were kept away by confirmed coronavirus and one with an injury and therefore ‘paired’ with Tory MPs not voting.
Inflicting a wounding blow on the Tories was again within reach and again the ‘leader’ of the (non-)opposition let it pass.
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Well its official…Theyre all innit together “
Keir Starmer
Let’s call out the Tories’ behaviour for what it is: corruption
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/03/call-out-tories-corruption-conservative-owen-paterson-keir-starmer
Says the man who hid his donors.
Kettle pan black…..wheres the legacy millions from our former leader mr Steve H and dont think we fall for the third party scam of members and former members.How much did your boss get for that lot of “Swag” cobber?ITs absolutely sickening thinking of how much of our hard earned money went to you parasites to spaff up the wall.
Joseph – Corbyn’s legacy was a 15%+ drop in membership over an 18mth period and a negative cash-flow.
Now that that scum has resigned, can we find out who were the so-called Labour MPs who were absent rather than vote against Tory disbanding of the Ctte which found Paterson egregiously guilty ?
Don’t hold your breath.
Brian – You can find the info you are seeking here.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2021/nov/04/how-did-your-mp-vote-on-the-owen-paterson-case
How do these MPs sleep at night? Don’t they have any sense of right and wrong? Or are they doing the same thing – corrupt and despicable? Who votes for these Tory voters? Or for Starmers Labour which is as dishonest? What a mess the UK is in.
To be fair, you need to take into account that some MPs might be off for good reasons. For example, Smarmer is off with covid. Are those 18 non votes due to absences or abstentions? If it is 18 absences, given the pandemic, it is all in all a reasonable turnout (91%).
Oh, I misread. Its 28, not 18… Not great!
Jon Trickett one of those not to record a vote, seems very odd. Milliband,Benn and Gardiner also absent.
Are they in Glasgow?
Could well be.I didn’t mean to suggest there was anything suspicious just thought it odd that so many senior figures missing, Thirteen SNP MPs also failed to register so with a bit more effort the amendment could have been defeated.
Jim, I think it’s one of those that our dear Skawkie is so expecting Labour to behave like shitbags (and God knows they do) that it becomes an automatic reflex to see shitbaggerie in all they do even when there isn’t. It would surprise me if the like of Trickett abstained/missed this vote on purpose.
He was injured
No but they should be in Coventry….
Ben I am sure you are right there are plenty of good reasons why people can’t attend and I certainly didn’t mean to cast any aspersions.
I know. I think it is right though to question who in Labour didn’t vote and why they didn’t. All 28 of them.
But this vote was quite short notice and I’d say for most of those 28, the reasons to miss it are legit. As I mentioned to others, Smarmier is self isolating, so that’s at least one explained.
Trickett was injured quite badly and unable to attend
This pairing often happens in commons votes, because they can find someone who would vote the other way who also can’t get to the Commons. In Jon Trickett’s case see
https://twitter.com/jon_trickett/status/1455938287298883588?s=20
Trouble is, we can’t be sure what their effective vote really is. They should allow electronic voting as they did before returning. I doubt if any Labour votes were with the Tories, otherwise it doesn’t help their own career.
I’m actually going to look-up the MPs voting on this. If my Labour MP was a non-voter (paired or by choice), then I will use my recent departure from the party to good effect – and campaign against him the first chance I get.
This is not about party point scoring. This is about right and wrong.
and of course, Sir Keir Rodney Starmer did not record a vote. He didn’t vote against. Cowardly and Disgraceful methinks.
Qwertboi, he’s self isolating with covid.
That’ll probably be all their excuse, Ben. Ta, I forgot
Sir Keith the Great Abstainer is vacant once again.
Well said quertboi……Right and wrong thats what its about and most importantly that Labour doesn’t give a monkeys…about being a Opposition party.Fancy trying to blame Squawkie for the lack of any Opposition party in parliament….disgusted but not suprised ..Dont want to upset the applecart do we?.
No excuses.
Those absent should’ve been dragged kicking & screaming onto the chamber for this one….Even from hospital beds, of necessary.
No place for niceties or gentlemanly agreements.
Agreed. It was a three line whip vote where ‘pairing’ does not normally apply. There are no excuses, every opposition MP should have voted. They’re all the damn same.
Slimy Andrea loathesome involved in shithousery here, too…
https://theconversation.com/pairing-and-why-it-matters-in-the-house-of-commons-100278
During the votes on the bill, Swinson was paired with Conservative MP Brandon Lewis. This meant that we wouldn’t expect either MP to have cast a vote in the division lobbies.
But when the key votes took place on July 17, it seemed that after abstaining for the first few divisions, Lewis did cast some votes on key amendments. Swinson tweeted a record of the votes, writing that the pairing agreement had been broken. The following day the leader of the house, Andrea Leadsom, stated that this had been an honest mistake, but The Times later revealed that other MPs had also been encouraged to break pairing arrangements.
Vermin
Rank hypocrisy in the Tory claim this is bringing MPs in line with the rest of employees. Try doing the kind of thing Patterson is accused of if you’re a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, a shop assistant, a waiter. Ah, say the Tories, they have aright of appeal. Yes, to the people who have sacked them. This is a further step towards fascism, aided by the slug Starmer. This is the Tories riding roughshod over democracy. Imagine Corbyn had been receiving £100,000 a year from Unite. Would the Tories have felt it unfair if he’s been hung, drawn and quartered? Hypocrisy and galloping fascism. Fight back.
Leadsome on 4News earlier basically denying she was trying to change the rules to get Paterson off.
If she believes her amendment will not allow a corrupt government led by one of the most corrupt politicians ever to take advantage of this she’s thicker than I thought. Why has it already been suggested Whittingdale will be Chair of this new committee. If it’s not to ensure nothing like this happens again.
There’s also no chance now of Paterson being suspended for 30 days which could lead to a by-election now. Especially if his constituents are that furious to demand this and his majority suffers.
A removal of these changes with the government backtracking will only happen if the narcissist Johnson thinks it’s damaging his popularity.
In the meantime…..
How long will the country have to put up with all this?
How long will it be before the Tory party puts an end to Johnson and his government goes further towards fascism?
It’s not that Leadsom is thick, it’s because she either believes the public is thick or that she doesn’t care what they believe that she made this move.
Leadsom is from the Bojo school of lies- remember the Tory Party leadership contest in 2016? She claimed to have been an investment banker, when infact she had only been a part time assistant in an investment firm.
À post truth plutocracy. £8,333.25 a month is all it takes to get a £460 million contract.
Interesting tweet from Peter Oborne. It was a three line whip and pairing is not generally practiced.
https://twitter.com/OborneTweets/status/1455975407753310222?t=cXYC6Ar0JgXDi36JUqYI1Q&s=19
Well done Squawky for pointing out that we desperately need a Opposition party in parliament and when the Oppotunity arises to actually behave like one.Once again the parasites infesting Labour cant see any problem with robbing the public because they do it everyday in parliament.
If you are registered to vote (which should be everyone) I would strongly recommend joining, as I have done:
https://remove-the-tory-government.org/
Anybody still harbouring thoughts/dreams of those other avaricious rat bastards implicated in the covid/PPE defrauding of the taxpayer, losing their seats (or their liberty) really ought to lay those ambitions to rest.
They’ll retrospectively change the law to exonerate themselves, all aided and abetted by an establishment stooge called keef and his reticence and acquiescence….
Anyway, earlier this evening ch4 news showed footage of paterson walling down Whitehall along with damien green and an inanely-grinning dummkopf-schmitt; complete with Gestapo style homburg hat but sans leather overcoat.
My first thought was: “Here they are – the politically poisonous dwarves…Sleazy, Gropey and Gobshite…Take your pick of any other four and label them what you will”
I think identifying the other four would make a good competition…
A real chance missed to hang out the Torys to dry.What a shambles of a leader of the opposition and his whips who seem to know nothing about whipping .
Given that Patterson has now resigned and the Tory’s screeching U-turn I would say that things have actually worked out quite well for Labour.
Clueless kim leadbeater lying through her fucking teeth about yesterday’s vote on BBC.
Stayt has just caught her out. A few minutes ago she said every labour MP voted against and people don’t know the whopping system
Then stayt pulled her about it being bullshit because it was a three line whip and she came out with a load of zawahi style, Steve h obfuscatory, irrelevant bullshit (which stayt let go)
Not only is she a LIAR. She’s as clueless as her party leader.
Just shut your cave leadbeater , you total embarrassment.
…………coming up to Guy Fawkes night.
According to the figures supplied by John Golding in his book ‘Hammer of the Left’, 6 Labour MPs did not vote in the confidence vote in 1979. The Labour government lost 311-310.
IIRC couldn’t that labour govt have been reprieved if Jim Callaghan had allowed a bedridden labour MP to vote for him, as would’ve been said MPs intent?
Paterson has resigned and …………….. Mr Paterson said he now wanted a life “outside the cruel world of politics”.
£112,000 in the back pocket is pretty cruel to his way of thinking?
Please email your MP with this OpenDemocracy facility.
“URGENT: The Conservative government is being rocked by a huge backlash. It’s because its MPs voted to rip up anti-sleaze rules to protect their colleague, former minister Owen Paterson, after he was found guilty of breaching lobbying rules.
“A quarter of the Conservative MPs who originally backed the relevant amendment had themselves been found to have broken parliamentary standards rules. And, of course, the new committee they wanted set up to “review” the way sleaze is policed was to be chaired by John Whittingdale, who was himself censured for failing to declare that he took his girlfriend along on a paid junket to Amsterdam.
“But now the government is wobbling. It has suddenly said that it won’t go ahead with these plans without cross-party support. That’s where we come in! Let’s show it that we, the public, see what it’s doing and won’t stand for sleaze rules being watered down.
“Could you please email your MP now and tell them that you oppose any attempt to weaken parliamentary standards? The government is on the ropes right now, so let’s put an end to its plans for good.
“When you use the link below you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll be asked for your postcode so we can make sure we send your email to the right MP. Then you’ll see a page where you can write your message in your own words. It only takes a couple of minutes and it could be a vital part in the fight to protect honesty in public life.”