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Scandal-hit Owen Paterson quit his lucrative consultancy work yesterday amid a deepening row over his roles.
The disgraced former Cabinet minister announced he was ‘stepping aside’ from his consultancy roles with a health firm and a sausage manufacturer after he was found to have lobbied ministers and officials on their behalf.
But despite being forced to leave his jobs and stand down as an MP this week, Downing Street refused to rule out the possibility of him receiving a peerage.
Mr Paterson, Northern Ireland secretary and environment secretary under the Coalition, had been paid £100,000 a year for 16 hours’ work each month advising Randox Laboratories since 2015, plus £12,000 a year for 24 hours a year by Lynn’s Country Foods for the past five years.
The 65-year-old, whose wife Rose took her own life last year, wrote online: ‘Thank you to the manDr Py people who have sent their kind wishes to me and my family this week.
‘At this difficult time, I will be stepping aside from my current consultancy work to focus on my family and suicide prevention.’
It is understood he took the decision to quit the jobs
