A day's a long time in politics

[Emrys]

3. OP continued 3:

It's rare and welcome to see a Labour MP seem to channel the zeitgeist. I'm not sure if it's a good thing when the Mail agrees with you, though, but at this point, I'll take it:



And I'll take the unusual step of letting the Mail recount what happened next:

Owen Paterson QUITS as an MP while slamming the 'cruel' politics after Boris humiliated him with U-turn on bid to save him from suspension - as furious Tories compare PM to the Grand Old Duke of York

* Standards committee called for ex-minister Owen Paterson to be suspended from the Commons for 30 days
* A standards probe found he had breached rules on lobbying and asked House to rubber-stamp punishment
* Boris Johnson ordered Tory MPs to back amendment pausing the process and called for overhaul of system
* But government has U-turned after massive outcry with Mr Paterson facing another vote on suspension
* He resigned from Commons tonight in move that avoids further humiliation and damage to the Conservatives

Owen Paterson today dramatically resigned after Boris Johnson executed an extraordinary U-turn on the bid to block his punishment for lobbying.

The former minister declared he is quitting as MP for North Shropshire after the PM effectively cut him adrift, saying he would continue as a public servant 'outside the cruel world of politics'.

The bombshell came hours after Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg announced the government was dropping plans for a retrospective overhaul of sleaze rules following a huge backlash at the 'politically-motivated' decision.

The reversal meant that a motion on suspending Mr Paterson for 30 days for lobbying rule breaches - the punishment recommended by the cross-party standards committee - was set to be brought before the House again within days.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10164343/PM-accused-colossal-misjudgement-Owen-Paterson-row.html

Link to tweet

John Stevens
@johnestevens

No10 didn’t tell Owen Paterson it was performing U-turn He was in supermarket when he found out he was no longer off the hook in call from BBC journalist, @bbclaurak
tells #wato

After an U-turn like that, I think Johnson's wasted in politics - he should be training HGV drivers.

Lest anyone feel any fleeting sympathy for Paterson, it would be seriously misplaced. He lacked contrition throughout, sought vengeance against those who tried to hold him to account, and before his resignation, said he'd do it all over again:

Link to tweet

Charles Donovan
@CharlieDonovan
When Owen Paterson thought he was victorious, there was no magnanimity in that victory - instead, he demanded that several people lose their livelihoods. No magnanimity - just a desire to ruin those who’d had the temerity to halt his corrupt activities.

Now, with Johnson having slammed the door after the horse had bolted, it makes a change, given how much the Tories have gotten away with over the last few years, to see some chickens coming home to roost rather than blithely continuing to feather their nests.

Johnson’s bruising defeat over standards reform angers Tory MPs
After a shambolic 24 hours, many are asking how party contrived such a spectacular defeat

Boris Johnson on Wednesday marched his Conservative MPs up to an exposed political hilltop to fight a battle few relished: to scrap Westminster’s anti-sleaze rules and help a colleague who had "egregiously" lobbied ministers for £100,000 a year.

At shortly after 10.30am on Thursday, Johnson marched his defeated ragged force back down the hill, harried by a hostile media and an opposition in full cry. A mood of despair among Tory MPs quickly crystallised into hard anger.

When Johnson led almost 250 Tory MPs into the House of Commons division lobbies on Wednesday, he will have noted the sullen looks, but one Tory MP said it was worse than that: "There were MPs in tears going through the lobby."

Those MPs who followed the Downing Street edict - enforced by a three-line whip - are now in the crosshairs of Labour as the Tories who "voted for sleaze". Peter Bone, one Tory MP, said his constituency office was vandalised overnight.

https://www.ft.com/content/51c93ba3-4a59-4e88-92ed-3e152a896493