Ex-Tory who criticized European Court of Human Rights takes UK to European Court of Human Rights – POLITICO
LONDON — A former Tory MP who has repeatedly criticized the European Court of Human Rights is suing the British government before… the European Court of Human Rights.
Owen Paterson resigned from the UK parliament last year after a House of Commons inquiry found he broke its rules on paid lobbying. He has now filed a complaint with the ECHR, alleging that the investigation breached his right to privacy under Article 8 of the Convention.
Last year, the UK’s parliamentary watchdog recommended Paterson face a 30-day ban from the House of Commons after it was discovered he had ‘repeatedly ‘used his job as an MP’ to promote the companies by which he was paid”.
At the time, Paterson strongly pushed back against the watchdog’s findings, saying the methods used by the investigation “do not create a fair and just outcome.”
Paterson eventually resigned from parliament after a failed attempt by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to side with the beleaguered MP.
In his application to the ECHR, summed up by the court, Paterson said the UK watchdog’s findings had “damaged his good name” and that the process of investigating the allegations against him was not “not right in many fundamental ways”.
Paterson has previously taken on the ECHR and the European Convention on Human Rights that underpins it, two frequent bugbears of eurosceptics in the ruling Conservative party.
In a speech to campaign group Business for Britain in 2014, Paterson said it would be easier to stop European migrants coming to the UK if Britain opted out of the ECHR.
“Much of the problematic immigration to this country does not just come from the EU, but from the European Court of Human Rights,” he said at the time. “This is exacerbated by the decisions of the judges in the Strasbourg court and by our own UK courts implementing human rights law.” He also advocated for the UK to adopt its own bill of rights to free the country from the ECHR.
Paterson’s complaint is in what is known as the “communication phase”, which means the ECHR has formally asked UK authorities to respond and may ask for more information. The complaint can always be rejected by the court if it is not deemed admissible.
Paterson was approached for comment but had yet to respond at press time.
if ( document.referrer.indexOf( document.domain ) < 0 ) {
pl_facebook_pixel_args.referrer = document.referrer;
}
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq( 'consent', 'revoke' );
fbq( 'init', "1394368290733607" );
fbq( 'track', 'PageView', pl_facebook_pixel_args );
if ( typeof window.__tcfapi !== 'undefined' ) {
window.__tcfapi( 'addEventListener', 2, function( tcData, listenerSuccess ) {
if ( listenerSuccess ) {
if ( tcData.eventStatus === 'useractioncomplete' || tcData.eventStatus === 'tcloaded' ) {
__tcfapi( 'getCustomVendorConsents', 2, function( vendorConsents, success ) {
if ( ! vendorConsents.hasOwnProperty( 'consentedPurposes' ) ) {
return;
}
const consents = vendorConsents.consentedPurposes.filter(
function( vendorConsents ) {
return 'Create a personalised ads profile' === vendorConsents.name;
}
);
if ( consents.length === 1 ) {
fbq( 'consent', 'grant' );
}
} );
}
}
});
}
Politices
