Has the government misstepped on the Paterson defence?

The row over Owen Paterson has come to a head today as the amendment to lift his suspension – tabled by fellow Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom and backed by the government – has upset many sides. Labour and the SNP are going in hard on accusations of Tory sleaze, with a real possibility of this spreading further than the Westminster bubble; while some Tory MPs who were whipped to vote in favour of the amendment are disgruntled at the position the government put them in (‘It’s fair to say that it has caused deep unease within the Tory party’, Katy says). So what will be the impact of today’s vote? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. James concludes: ‘I think the government made a very big mistake today’.

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