He's the MP who put the grit into integrity

Aren't we cruel? Owen Paterson was an MP who tried his hardest. It's true he was trying his hardest for a company that slipped him £8,000 a month to use his position as an MP to make them rich, but he was making an effort and that's the main thing.

- MARK STEEL

We complain that our MPs don't work hard enough, and then we moan if they spend 20 extra hours a week working at being corrupt! We can't make up our minds WHAT we want.

Paterson was working for a company called Randox. It paid him to use his position to get favours, and by coincidence they won a £500million contract to provide the Covid tests.

What a feel-good story - that even a global pandemic brings a bit of good news for some people.

At one point he was in the Cabinet as well, but luckily he wasn't in charge of anything important.

He only had to run Northern Ireland, which is always simple, and that must be why he had all that spare time.

An independent inquiry found him guilty of seriously breaking the rules, so Boris Johnson ordered the Conservatives to overturn this decision.