Thank you for contacting me about Owen Paterson.

I firmly believe that MPs must hold themselves to high standards of integrity. Therefore, I have never voted against a motion to accept a report and recommendations from the Standards Committee. The Committee has the broad support of the House, and until this recent case, the House had also accepted every report and recommendation it had made. Although I am aware of Owen Paterson’s complaints about the Committee’s procedures and the unique and tragic circumstances around the investigation into him, including the death by suicide of his wife Rose last year while the investigation was ongoing, I did not believe it was appropriate to vote against the Standards Committee’s recommendation on November 3rd .

I abstained on an amendment, moved by Andrea Leadsom, to effectively reject the Committee’s report and recommendations. However, this amendment was successful, and therefore I also abstained on the final, amended version of the motion. It is clear that this case, and the circumstances around it, have caused questions to be raised about the Standards Committee’s processes. I believe that these questions are worth considering, and that they should be addressed separately to the specific matter of Owen Paterson’s case. Owen Paterson has now resigned his seat in the House of Commons, and a new motion has been brought before the House of Commons to rescind the amended motion from November 3rd and accept the Committee’s report into the Owen Paterson case.

I will support this motion, which has the backing of the chair of the Committee. I am also pleased that the chair has confirmed that a senior judicial figure will be appointed by the Committee to advise on how its processes can be reformed. I hope this will help address questions about the standards system, so that MPs and the public alike can be sure that the process is beyond reproach.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.