The announcement comes a year after the former cabinet minister resigned after parliament’s watchdog ruled that he broke House of Commons rules by repeatedly lobbying for Randox and another firm that paid him. The watchdog intends to fine Paterson up to £7,500 but gave the former MP an opportunity to overturn the decision. On Friday, Harry Rich, the registrar of consultant lobbyists, said he proposed to conclude that Paterson had acted unlawfully when he lobbied ministers on behalf of Randox.
Paterson now faces being fined after a Whitehall watchdog provisionally concluded that he broke transparency rules by failing to register as a lobbyist for a healthcare firm. Paterson later resigned his safe Conservative seat of North Shropshire, triggering a byelection that was won by the Lib Dems. It followed the outcry over disclosures that the Tories’ Owen Paterson broke the ban on paid lobbying by MPs while the Conservative backbencher Geoffrey Cox earned more than £900,000 last year from his work as a lawyer.
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