John Major slams ‘un-conservative’ handling of Paterson probe

Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major has criticised the government’s “shameful” handling of the Paterson report.

In reference to the Government’s controversial quashing of Paterson’s recommended 30-day suspension on Wednesday, followed by a U-turn on Thursday, Major told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What has been happening is damaging at home & to our reputation overseas”, describing the debacle as “shameful & wrong and unworthy of this or indeed any other government & also had the effect of trashing Parliament”.

He added: “There is a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about [government’s] behaviour. I think this is cutting through to the public. This has to stop and it has to stop now.”

In 1994 the then Prime Minister Major, announced a Committee on Standards in Public Life to advise the PM on ethical matters, largely in response to the Cash-for-Questions affair.

He said the government’s approach was “very un-conservative”.

He went on: “Whenever they run up against difficulties with somebody-the Supreme Court, the electoral commission, the BBC-they react not with an understanding, not trying to placate what has gone wrong but in a hostile fashion. It’s profoundly unconservative and something I dislike intensely”.

He said that the government’s cut to foreign aid was “odious”.

He also went on to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiations, saying it would be “colossally stupid” and “absurd” to trigger Article 16.