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Former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson is facing a month suspension from the House of Commons after being slammed by MPs for lobbying for two companies he worked for.
The ex-Environment Secretary broke parliamentary rules on paid advocacy while acting as a £100,000 consultant for Randox, a clinical diagnostics company, and Lynn's Country Foods.
The 65-year-old North Shropshire MP denied the charge and last week claimed the 'cruel' investigation 'played a huge part' in the death of his wife Rose last year.
He doubled down on this attack today in the wake of the report from the Parliamentary Committee on Standards, saying the investigation against him was 'biased'.
'On a personal level, the cost to me and my three grown-up children from the manner of this investigation has been catastrophic,' he said in a statement.
'Last summer, in the midst of the investigation, my wife of 40 years, Rose, took her own life. We will never know definitively what drove her to suicide, but the manner in which this investigation was conducted undoubtedly played a major role.'
However, the committee today said 'no previous case of paid advocacy has seen so many breaches or such a clear pattern of behaviour in failing to separate private and public interests'.
