Conservative MP Owen Paterson should be suspended for 30 days over an “egregious case of paid advocacy”, the parliamentary committee on standards has recommended.
The watchdog made the recommendation on Tuesday morning after he was found to have repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of two companies for which he was acting as a paid consultant – Randox, and Lynn’s Country Foods.
But Paterson rejected the findings. “This is a biased process and not fair,” he said.
“It offends against the basic standard of procedural fairness that no-one should be found guilty until they have had a chance to be heard and to present their evidence including their witnesses.”
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