Inside the murky world of tory corruption and sleaze


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------------------------- OWEN PATERSON LOBBYING SCANDAL Tory MP Owen Paterson has failed to declare his interest as a paid lobbyist for two private sector companies, for which he was paid


£110,000 a year. One of the companies, Randox, has been able to secure Covid-19 contracts worth roughly half a billion pounds, many awarded without tender and despite the company not having


enough equipment. > EXC w/@GeorgeGreenwood >  > Days after Owen Paterson’s employers, Randox, won a £133m testing > contract, officials learned of a problem… they didn’t have


> enough equipment >  > No penalty: instead, per docs, No10 did “ring around” to get it > loaned to them insteadhttps://t.co/kX7OJK1O0i >  > — Gabriel Pogrund 


(@Gabriel_Pogrund) November 7, 2021 The independent Standards Committee found Owen Paterson broke parliamentary rules on lobbying, and proposed a punishment of 30 days’ suspension from the


UK Parliament. Instead of accepting it, Tory MPs – forced by the UK government under a three-line whip – voted to block an immediate suspension of Owen Paterson and to completely rip up the


existing standards committee that found against Paterson. > 🔎 Today, Tories voted against suspending one of their own MPs > after the standards committee found an “egregious” breach of


> corruption rules. >  > 🤦🏼‍♂️ They voted to rewrite the rules, because they > didn’t suit them. >  > 👎🏼 It’s one rule for them, and another for the rest of us. > 


pic.twitter.com/Bp3oLKOs3s >  > — The SNP (@theSNP) November 3, 2021 After the SNP and Labour said they would boycott the proposed new standards committee – labelled a “kangaroo


court”, the UK government performed a drastic U-turn and Owen Paterson had resigned as an MP.