Ex-minister could be suspended from Commons for 30 days for working as a consultant with two firms
The Conservative MP Owen Paterson faces a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons for an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules, raising the possibility he could lose his seat if enough constituents trigger a byelection.
The MP for North Shropshire, a former cabinet minister, was found by the Commons commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, to have breached paid advocacy rules, after it was discovered he had worked as a consultant to Randox, a clinical diagnostics company, since August 2015. It was also discovered he was a paid consultant to Lynn’s Country Foods, a processor and distributor of meat products since December 2016.
