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The former Tory minister and Brexiteer who resigned from parliament after a lobbying scandal is suing the government in European courts, a court system he once called for leaving.
Owen Patterson has asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to investigate his claim that Parliament’s standards watchdog breached his privacy when it was discovered he had breached lobbying rules.
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The right to privacy is guaranteed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is ruled by the European Court of Human Rights.
Brexiteer Patterson, a Cabinet minister, called on the UK to “liberate” from the “absurdity” of European courts in 2014 so that the government could “deport illegal immigrants who come to Calais”. The replacement of the agreement was a key tenet of his support for Brexit.
In a summary of the case, the court said: “The Applicant complains that his rights under Article 8 have been violated, that the public discovery that he had breached the Code of Conduct damaged his good reputation, and that the process by which the allegations against him which were investigated were made were unfair in many essential respects.” “.
Last year, Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Catherine Stone found the then Conservative MP for North Shropshire to have breached a rumored code of conduct by lobbying ministers and officials of two companies that paid him more than £100,000 a year.
The House of Commons Standards Committee found his actions an “egregious” breach of the rules governing paid advocacy by MPs and recommended he be suspended for 30 days.
In early November 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempted to change the rules to prevent Patterson’s suspension but was forced to back down after only 24 hours due to public outrage.
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The corruption scandal surrounding the case was one of several to engulf Johnson’s government and ultimately lead to his downfall.
According to legal commentator Joshua Rosenberg, the court “reported” the case to the government, giving the government an opportunity to respond.
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