Three Norfolk MPs have acknowledged they made mistakes when they voted to change standards rules and block the suspension of a fellow Conservative.

Amid a sleaze row which has engulfed the Tory party, Duncan Baker, MP for North Norfolk, Norwich North MP Chloe Smith and Broadland MP Jerome Mayhew agreed mistakes were made over how the government handled the vote involving former minister Owen Paterson.

Conservative MPs were, last Wednesday, ordered to vote for a new committee to consider an altered system of appeals, which suspended Mr Paterson's punishment after he was found to have lobbied on behalf of Randox and Lynn's Country Foods.

%image(14412522, type="article-full", alt="Former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson in the House of Commons, London, as MPs debated an amendment calling for a review of his case after he received a six-week ban from Parliament over an "egregious" breach of lobbying rules. Picture date: Wednesday November 3, 2021.")

After an outcry - and Mr Paterson's resignation - ministers backtracked and a motion is due to be discussed next week to unpick the amendment which had been voted on.

That had been passed by 18 votes — 250 to 232 - in approval of changing the system, with all Norfolk's Conservative MPs voting with the government, amid a three line whip.

But, after the EDP asked all the county's Conservative MPs if they regretted how they had voted, a trio of them conceded they had made mistakes. Two were not available to comment and three did not respond at all.

Duncan Baker, North Norfolk MP, said he was "embarrassed". He said: "I have said publicly that I regret what has happened over the past week. With all the right intentions, I made a mistake.

"And that mistake was to conflate two issues - the need for a change to the system and the Owen Paterson issue.

"I would have voted to suspend Mr Paterson, because the report was damning, but there are obvious flaws in the system which MPs are judged upon.

"I was naive not to recognise that conflating the two issues would lead to people being rightly upset and for that I am sorry."

Mr Baker said he had received correspondence from constituents who were angry about the issue.

%image(14415695, type="article-full", alt="Stephen Barclay MP.")

He did not attend Monday's follow-up debate, where Stephen Barclay MP said, while there were concerns with the way allegations of wrongdoing by MPs are probed, it had been an error for ministers to proceed in the way they did.

Mr Baker said he had not attended as he was speaking to environment secretary George Eustice ahead of the environment bill.

The issue has put the second jobs held by MPs in the spotlight. Mr Baker said: "I fully accept people's concerns about other employment.

"There should be some exceptions where MPs can make contributions to charitable and medical sectors, but from my point of view I concentrate 200pc on the job of serving constituents day to day."

%image(14393532, type="article-full", alt="Jerome Mayhew, Broadland MP.")

Broadland MP Jerome Mayhew, said: "I think the government made a couple of mistakes and we should own up to them.

"The first one is there have been concerns on the disciplinary process and how it works and whether it is fair or not for a number of years, but the government has never taken the steps to fix it."

Mr Mayhew said the second mistake was in conflating the Owen Paterson issue into that.

He said: "Politically it was cloth-eared, so I am glad that the government has now separated the two issues and will be reviewing improvements of the system on a cross party basis."

He said he watched the follow-up debate, but did not take part in it.

%image(14363404, type="article-full", alt="Chloe Smith")

Norwich North MP Chloe Smith said: "I am always prepared to justify my votes in Parliament and to be accountable to constituents for those. That is fundamental in this job. In this case, I recognise I got it wrong.

"I voted for the Leadsom amendment to the motion because I believe it contained some sensible points.

"It was designed to improve our standards system. I don’t think anyone thinks the current system is perfect, and there are some serious questions which need to be discussed.

"For example, under the present disciplinary system, the accused party has no right of appeal and few rights when it comes to presenting witnesses or other supporting evidence.

"However, reforms to the process should not be tied to a vote on a single case. Or, indeed, applied retrospectively. MPs should hold themselves to the highest standards in public life and must accept a rule book.

"The government recognises this too, and that they made a mistake."

Despite the whip, 13 Conservatives voted against the motion and no vote was recorded by 98 others — including Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney.

%image(14363124, type="article-full", alt="Waveney MP Peter Aldous")

Mr Aldous said he had not voted because he felt the two issues should have been considered separately and not be conflated.

He said: "I was not especially surprised by the subsequent reaction to the vote, since I realised the government had created the impression that it was conflating the case of Owen Paterson with any review of the standards system.

"This meant that people viewed the move as an attempt to change the rules in order to save a culpable colleague.

"It was clearly a big mistake to conflate the concerns about the investigations system with the particular case of Mr Paterson, and the government did not cover itself in glory last week."

Mr Aldous said there was still a need for Parliament to decide how best to review the standards system.

He said: "It is important that this proceeds on a cross party basis, it may well be appropriate for it to be much wider in remit and for it to be overseen by an independent party."

Mr Aldous did not take part in the follow up debate as he had made his views clear previously.

Mr Aldous said he did not believe there should be a blanket ban on MPs having second jobs, but that it was "essential that policymakers do not abuse their positions to benefit clients and a system is in place which prevents this from happening and carries public confidence".

Mid-Norfolk MP George Freeman is unwell with Covid, so said he was not able to respond to our questions, while the office of South West Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss said she could not respond as she was in Asia on ministerial business in her role as foreign secretary.

James Wild, North West Norfolk MP, Brandon Lewis, Great Yarmouth MP, and Richard Bacon, South Norfolk MP did not respond.

Following last week's row, Mr Paterson announced he was quitting as MP for North Shropshire after 24 years, blaming the "cruel world of politics".

Parliament's committee on standards had proposed he should be banned from sitting in the House of Commons for 30 days.

He had hoped to challenge the finding through a new appeals system.

Analysis

Opposition parties have made political capital out of the mess the Conservatives found themselves in following last week's vote.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused prime minister Boris Johnson of damaging democracy.

And Mr Johnson's failure to attend the follow-up debate on Monday was also seized upon, while national papers now shining the spotlight on the issue of second jobs and lobbying.

But, perhaps just as harmful to Mr Johnson is the anger within his own party at how they were whipped to vote for the Andrea Leadsom standards report amendment.

Three of Norfolk's MPs, to their credit, have admitted they - and the government - got it wrong in conflating the need for standards reform with Mr Paterson's case.

Recent polls, one of which showed Mr Johnson's approval ratings at a record low and another which showed the Tories’ lead over Labour in general election voting intention had dropped to just one percentage point, demonstrates the public's anger.