LBC host says Owen Paterson's actions are 'mental'

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In the wake of the Owen Paterson scandal, the former Prime Minister issued his outrage at how the Government had acted. Speaking on Saturday, Sir John also claimed the way the Prime Minister had handled the situation was “shameful”. Sir John said the Government had damaged the reputation of Parliament.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir John said: “I’m afraid that the Government, with their over-large majority, do tend to treat Parliament with contempt.

“And if that continues, it will end badly.

“They bypass Parliament at will and the Speaker has expressed his frustration about that on many occasions, and rightly so.

“But they also behaved badly in other ways that are perhaps politically corrupt.”

The Government was forced to backtrack on its decision to prevent Mr Paterson from being suspended from Parliament for 30 days this week.

Mr Paterson was found to have breached Parliament rules after he approached two Government departments on behalf of two companies who employed him as a consultant, Radox and Lynn’s Country Foods.

The Committee on Standards recommended the former MP for North Shropshire be suspended for 30 days before colleagues put forward two amendments to block his suspension.

On Wednesday, No10 backed a shake-up of the standards watchdog and called for a new committee to be drawn up.

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On Thursday, Mr Paterson resigned with the Prime Minister expressing his sadness over losing a “friend” from Parliament.

In a further attack against the Government, Sir John added: “Over the last few days we have seen today’s government trying to defend this sort of behaviour.

“Sleaze is unacceptable, was unacceptable when I was there, and I suffered a great deal of pain and anguish over it.

“It’s unacceptable today, and it needs to be stopped.”

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He added: “There is a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about their behaviour.”

“Whenever they run up against difficulties with anybody – whether it is the Supreme Court, the Electoral Commission, the BBC, they react not with an understanding, not with trying to placate what has gone wrong, but actually in rather a hostile fashion.”

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Sir John also claimed the Government had done damage to the UK’s reputation abroad.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, said: “The Prime Minister is in charge of the party, in charge of the Government, ultimately he must take responsibility.”

Downing Street has been approached for comment.

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