Government could face 'higher level of defiance' from MPs on voting after Owen Paterson row

Lord Timothy Kirkhope of Harrogate believes that “there will be probably more questioning” among members when it comes to controversial votes, as the Government’s 80-seat majority makes it easier for MPs to side with their consciences without the risk of crucial votes being lost.

Tory MPs have faced days of sleaze allegations, which started last Wednesday when MPs were ordered to vote for a new committee to consider an altered system of appeals after former environment secretary Mr Paterson was sanctioned, only for ministers to backtrack hours later after opposition parties refused to co-operate.

Parliament’s Standards Committee had recommended the former North Shropshire MP should be suspended from Parliament for 30 days after committing an “egregious” breach of a ban on paid lobbying by MPs.

While many Government MPs abstained on last week’s vote, 13 rebelled and walked through the opposition lobbies.

Lord Kirkhope served as a whip in the 1990s under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and told The Yorkshire Post that even with a large majority, it is in the governing party’s interests to make sure that their MPs side with them.

Reflecting on his own time in the job, when there were occasions “we were lucky to have a majority at all”, he explained: “Now, it isn’t quite so bad because they’ve got a big majority but even so, I think it’s important that you carry the parliamentary party with you rather than making them irritated and getting them against you.

“Then it becomes a much more difficult proposition altogether.”

However, he said that MPs accept their whip when they come to Parliament and may have to “swallow quite a lot of things”.

“I got pretty annoyed that I had to vote in ways which I would not ideally vote, but I had to accept it,” he added.

Following on from last week’s votes and the subsequent reversal, which has provoked anger among a number of MPs, Lord Kirkhope added: “I think there will be probably more questioning and with a majority of 80 I think there will be more people who will now be saying,’oh, well, you know, I’m not going to vote for that. They’ve got a majority I don’t like it’ in other words, there will be a higher level of defiance now."

Yesterday, a by-election was officially triggered to elect Mr Paterson’s successor in the safe Conservative seat of North Shropshire, which will be held next month.

However, the row over standards continues to rumble on, as a former Cabinet Minister has been found to have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds advising the British Virgin Islands in a corruption probe launched by the Foreign Office.

Labour is calling for an official investigation after most recent register of financial interests showed that Torridge and West Devon Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox will earn more than £800,000 from Withers, an international law firm appointed by the British Virgin Islands (BVI) government in January.

Number 10 said Boris Johnson felt an MP’s duties in Parliament must come first. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Johnson thought an “MP’s primary job is and must be to serve their constituents and to represent their interests in Parliament”.