How Derbyshire MPs voted on the Owen Paterson case – before Government announced rethink
and live on Freeview channel 276
On Wednesday, Number 10 backed an overhaul of the standards watchdog and blocked the suspension of former Tory minister Owen Paterson, who had been found to have misused his position to benefit two companies he worked for.
But it sparked accusations of ‘sleaze’, with Labour saying the Conservatives just wanted to ‘let off one of their own’.
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Hide AdOn Thursday, Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, confirmed the changes will not go ahead without cross-party support.
He told the Commons there was a ‘strong feeling’ that any change to the standards process ‘should not be based on a single case’.
Wednesday’s vote had ‘conflated’ the two, he said.
“This link needs to be broken,” added Mr Rees-Mogg.
“Therefore I and others will be looking at working on a cross-party basis to achieve improvements in our system for future cases.”
How all of Derbyshire’s MPs voted on Wednesday on the controversial standards reform to protect Owen Paterson
Amber Valley Conservative MP Nigel Mills – VOTED AGAINST
Bolsover Conservative MP Mark Fletcher – DID NOT VOTE
Chesterfield Labour MP Toby Perkins – VOTED AGAINST
Derby North Conservative MP Amanda Solloway – VOTED FOR
Derby South Labour MP Margaret Beckett – DID NOT VOTE
Derbyshire Dales Conservative MP Sarah Dines – VOTED FOR
Mid-Derbyshire Conservative MP Pauline Latham – VOTED FOR
North East Derbyshire Conservative MP Lee Rowley – DID NOT VOTE
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Hide AdSouth Derbyshire Conservative MP Heather Wheeler – VOTED FOR
Erewash Conservative MP Maggie Throup – VOTED FOR
High Peak Conservative MP Robert Largan – DID NOT VOTE
Reaction from Chesterfield’s Labour MP
Following Wednesday’s vote, Toby Perkins said it was a ‘very bleak and grubby day as Tory MPs vote to protect a Tory MP suspended by an independent commission’.
“If people continue to support this disreputable and grubby Government they will get exactly what they deserve,” he added.
He also retweeted a Labour Party meme saying: “The Tories break the rules then they remake the rules. One rule for them, another for everyone else.”
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Hide AdDuring Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said he supported the proposed reforms and that MPs found to have broken the rules should get a right of appeal, as would happen with doctors and teachers found guilty of misconduct.
Politicians must ‘consider the procedures of this House in a spirit of fairness’, he added.
But Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the Conservatives were ‘wallowing in sleaze’ and accused them of changing the rules to suit their own ends.
She said: “It’s one rule for everybody else and one rule for the Conservatives. When they break the rules, they just remake the rules.
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Hide Ad“In no other profession in our country could someone be found guilty by an independent process and just have their mates vote them back into the job,” she added.
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain called the Government’s ‘support’ of Mr Paterson ‘shameful’, adding that it would ‘inevitably damage’ trust in the system.