The MP was one of three local members of parliament approached by the Times and asked to respond to critics branding the attempt to block the suspension as ‘sleaze’ and a ‘brazen attempt to protect their own’.
Owen Paterson was facing a 30-day suspension for an ‘egregious’ breach of lobbying rules following an investigation by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone and a subsequent report by the Commons Committee on Standards.
Mr Paterson was found to have repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials for two companies paying him more than £100,000 per year.
Conservative MPs gathered in the Commons last Wednesday [November 3] for a vote to block the MP’s immediate suspension and to support the creation of a Tory-led committee to look again at the case and overhaul the standards system.
There were 246 Tory members who voted to block the suspension, including Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark and Nus Ghani who represents Wealden.
Tonbridge’s Tom Tugendhat abstained*.
Owen Paterson later resigned as an MP after Boris Johnson U-turned to allow a fresh vote on the former minister’s suspension.
Mr Paterson’s ‘painful decision’ to resign as MP for North Shropshire, has triggered a by-election taking place on December 16. His wife, Rose, chair of Aintree racecourse, had taken her own life in 2020, with Mr Paterson saying the scandal had contributed to her death.
Despite the U-turn and Mr Paterson’s resignation, local Tory MPs have faced stiff criticism from opposition parties for trying to block Paterson’s suspension.
Lib Dem councillor Ben Chapelard, who was a challenger for the Tunbridge Wells parliamentary seat in 2019, told the Times that the ‘situation stinks’, especially as Greg Clark had previously defied the whip – the party’s order on how to vote – over other issues.
In 2019, Greg Clark rebelled over Brexit and was temporarily ejected from the parliamentary party. And just last month, the former Business Secretary defied the government over a vote involving the dumping of raw sewage on the UK’s coasts.
However, last week Mr Clark decided to obey the three-line whip on the Paterson affair.
Cllr Chapelard, said: “What was Greg Clark thinking? Mr Clark voted to let off his former Cabinet colleague, Mr Paterson. Let’s remember Mr Paterson was found guilty of breaking sleaze rules no less than 14 times and taking money for doing it.
“Mr Clark should have defied the part’s voting instructions as he did the previous week. Unfortunately, I can only conclude that he agrees with letting Mr Paterson off the hook otherwise why would he have voted the way he did?
“The situation stinks. It now appears that Mr Paterson was lobbying for a company which won a dodgy Covid contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. It is very much a case of one rule for us members of the public and no rules for Conservative MPs.”
The Labour Party Chairman in Tunbridge Wells, Martin Betts, said that Mr Clark has made the ‘wrong judgement’ .
He added: “Labour, other opposition parties and most newspapers have called out these actions as yet another example of Government sleaze and a brazen attempt to protect their own.
“The Government have now caved in under this pressure, done another U-turn on their decision and Paterson has resigned. The episode has again called into question the Prime Minister’s competence and has unnecessarily brought members of parliament into further disrepute.”
Greg Clark told the Times: “Last week’s vote was clearly a mistake. It brought together two things – whether there should be a right to appeal as in other disciplinary processes, and whether Owen Paterson should be allowed an appeal.
“The general and the personal should not have been mixed. It is much better to proceed by consensus rather than majority on such matters, and now that Mr Paterson has resigned, I hope that this is what will now happen.”
* In an earlier version of this article we incorrectly stated that Tom Tungendhat voted with the government but he in fact abstained. We are happy to make that clarification.
