Paterson alleged the ‘living hell’ of the lobbying probe contributed to his wife Rose’s suicide last year, going so far as to argue at one point – via a letter to the committee – that to find him guilty would place the blame for his wife’s death firmly at his door. Yet Paterson and his supporters regard it as a politically-motivated stich-up. The committee which produced it contained three Tory MPs, all of whom unequivocally backed its findings. Parliament’s sleaze watchdog explained last month exactly why this work broke strict Commons rules, via a forensic 170-page report. I wouldn’t hesitate.’īy ‘the whole lot’, he’s referring to various meetings he arranged and emails (or letters) he sent between 20 that had helped serve the agenda of his two Northern Irish employers: health giant Randox – which paid him £100,000 a year for consultancy services – and a meat firm called Lynn’s Country Foods, which had him on a retainer of £12,000 a year. Paterson had been saying exactly the same thing on Wednesday night when, amid spiralling public outrage, he hit the airwaves to declare: ‘I would do the whole lot again tomorrow morning.

Corruption of champions cheats names