Owen Paterson, the British Member of Parliament for North Shropshire, has taken the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights for violating his right to privacy in a case that led to his resignation from his post after he was accused of violating parliamentary rules in the House of Commons.
Paterson, a Brexit advocate, resigned in 2021 as MP for North Shropshire amid a scandal over which the UK Parliament’s independent investigator–the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner–concluded that he had violated lobbying rules during his private sector work.
In the brief, published by the body, the Euroskeptic and Conservative former British MP alleges that his privacy rights were violated under Article 8 by «the investigative process leading to his resignation.»
«The public finding that he had breached the code of conduct damaged his good reputation and that the process by which the allegations against him were investigated and considered was unfair in many basic respects,» the text reads.
The ‘Tories’, with the support of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, passed a motion to mitigate the suspension of MPs in the House of Commons, a move that the Labor Party interpreted as a way to protect Paterson, who was then facing a suspension of about 30 days in the House over the case.
However, the also former British minister for Northern Ireland under David Cameron decided to step down after Labour accused the British government of corruption for trying to reform parliamentary rules, Sky News reported.
