Paterson debacle ‘weakened the Government’, warns former minister

An ex-minister has claimed the Owen Paterson debacle has damaged the government and politicians’ reputation in the eyes of voters and Conservatives.

Sir David Lidington told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier today that: “Clearly there was a pretty appalling set of misjudgements involved… The reputation of the House of Commons as an institution and MPs of all parties will have been damaged by the events of the last 24 hours.”

A YouGov poll commissioned by The Times after the Paterson vote on Wednesday evening and Thursday demonstrated a dip of 5 points for the Conservative lead.

He emphasised too that the issue had “weakened the Government”, including its support by backbench MPs, explaining: “If you ask your troops to march through the lobby on something like this and which they don’t think is right and then you U-turn on it, it’s going to be more difficult next time around,” he said.

Sir David served as shadow Northern Ireland secretary before taking on the foreign affairs portfolio before the 2010 general election. He was appointed Europe minister in the Foreign Office after the formation of the coalition, and confirmed in the same role after the 2015 election.

He stepped down as an MP at the 2019 election.