The looming showdown over Owen Paterson

Rising taxes, middling growth, the spectre of inflation – there’s much at present to get Tory MPs annoyed. But it’s not just the Budget that’s got some of them exercised this week; a damning report into Owen Paterson by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has wound up many on the backbenches. The former Cabinet minister has hit back strongly against claims that he had ‘repeatedly’ used his position to benefit two companies who paid him as a consultant, with Paterson calling on colleagues to waive Parliamentary privilege so he can challenge the inquiry’s findings in the courts.

Jacob Rees-Mogg today told MPs that the Commons will debate and vote on Paterson’s 30-day suspension from Parliament on Wednesday. Normally such votes are a foregone conclusion; a rubber stamp to approve rulings by the Commissioner such as Keith Vaz’s suspension in 2019. But Mr S has spoken to a number of Tory MPs who have been meeting to plot ways to support Paterson and register their discontent with the current Commissioner, Kathryn Stone.

The