Last night, Andrea Leadsom put up the most shameless performance in a Channel 4 News interview that it's ever been my misfortune to witness since the Iraq invasion and/or Brexit, defending Paterson to the hilt, and she wasn't alone among prominent Tories, just arguably the most infuriating.
Johnson himself was full of his usual blustering froth when cornered:
Paul Johnson
@paul__johnson
Owen Paterson
What Standards Committee said:
'No previous case of paid advocacy has seen so many breaches or such a clear pattern of behaviour in failing to separate private and public interests'
What Boris Johnson said to @AngelaRayner
'You're playing politics'
#PMQs
And so, yesterday, it came to pass:
Adam Bienkov
@AdamBienkov
BREAKING: The House of Commons votes by 250 to 232 to overturn Conservative MP Owen Paterson’s suspension and rip up the Standards regime that found him guilty of breaking anti-corruption rules.
Cue Kwasi Kwarteng, who kept up the government’s momentum after the vote by suggesting it was the Standards Commissioner who should resign, not Paterson:
Sky News
@SkyNews
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng tells #KayBurley it is "difficult" to see a future for Kathryn Stone, the independent parliamentary commissioner for standards, after her recommendation to suspend Owen Paterson was blocked by Conservative MPs.
Read more:
https://trib.al/ZJkztTy
[Twitter video]
What could have driven the government to this egregious example of mass special pleading?
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺
@nicktolhurst
+UPDATE+
Rumours in Westminster that UK govt far more keen on a showdown over Owen Paterson than even some of Paterson's friends were.
Assumption being that Johnson wants to destroy standards committees infrastructure before his own expenses & behaviour are examined.
= new reply since forum marked as read