Most likely, it was Rose Paterson’s final email before her suicide.
This revealed how much despair Owen Paterson’s wife felt during those hours prior to her suicide.
Anne Jenkin is a Tory peer and Mrs Paterson replied to Anne Jenkin’s email. She wrote: “Sometimes, I feel like I should just go into the yard and never return.”
Also, it is understood that she spoke of how the innuendo was making her sad.
Her body was later found in woodland close to their home in Ellesmere near Wrexham, just a few hours after her death.
This email exchange was triggered by the resignation of Mr Paterson as Cabinet Minister.
Boris Johnson’s failed attempt to suspend the damning standards verdict against Mr. Johnson for failing to comply with paid advocacy rules regarding Randox Country Foods and Lynn’s Country Foods, led him into resignation.
Pictured are Rose Patterson, Tory MP. and Owen Paterson. recently suspended. After receiving an email claiming that she was involved in corruption claims last year, Mrs Paterson died. Her body was discovered hours later.
Tory MPs are now threatening to lash out at the Prime Minister for his “calamitous” lack of judgement in trying to subvert the ruling by Commons Standards Committee.
Even though he protested his innocence, Paterson quit the “cruel world” of politics and he blamed that inquiry’s manner for his wife’s suicide.
Mrs Paterson (63), the daughter of fourth Viscount Ridley, was a prominent figure at Jockey Club. She felt the shame and pressure that came with being embroiled in public scandal.
Friends say that Mr Paterson believed Lady Jenkin sent him an email around midnight to prove his point.
One friend stated that Owen thought Rose was pushing Rose over the edge.
In the email, Lady Jenkin – wife of Tory MP and Standards Committee member Sir Bernard Jenkin – is understood to have alerted her friend to an obscure blog linking Mrs Paterson to Randox, the company at the heart of her husband’s controversial outside interests.
According to the September inquest, Mrs Paterson committed suicide. She had no last note left for loved ones, however, she did make three searches online on suicide options before her death.
Pictured are Anne Jenkin, MP Bernard Jenkin, and her husband. Anne was close to Mrs Paterson.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that her murder investigation also revealed the email correspondence with Lady Jenkin.
The Tory peer is said to then have asked Mr Paterson if she knew that she was being investigated by the Commons Standard Commissioner over a violation of rules regarding paid advocacy.
According to Lady Jenkin, her husband is a member the Standards Committee. However, the inquiry was not made public. Friends claimed that Lady Jenkin was merely alerting her friend to a conspiracy theory that linked her with Randox, the sponsor of Grand National at Aintree, where Mrs Paterson was chair. A Lady Jenkin ally said that Bernard was on the Standards Committee, but Kathryn Stone was conducting the inquiry. Anne was unaware of it.
“Very few people did at this stage as the parliamentary regulations then in effect, Owen Paterson alone was not permitted to speak publicly about his being under investigation.
A senior Tory MP said: ‘The enforced secrecy around the inquiry – with Owen unable to defend himself – was, of course, one of the things that put such pressure on the Paterson family.’
Owen Paterson, (pictured) was just suspended after he violated party lobbying rules. While he protested his innocence, Owen Paterson quit the “cruel world” of politics and vowed to never be guilty. He has since blamed that standard inquiry for his wife’s suicide.
However, others have pointed out the terrible – if entirely unintended – effect that Lady Jenkin’s email might have had on Mrs Paterson.
A friend stated that Rose would be more worried if she was involved in the larger scandal.
An internal Tory dispute over Sir Bernard’s decision to not participate in crucial Standards Committee deliberations has been revived by the revelation of the email conversation. This led to the harsh 30-day suspension handed to Mr Paterson.
Critics say that his withdrawal allowed junior Tory members on the committee to be ‘bullied into passing down such a harsh sentence.
According to the minutes of the committee, Sir Bernard stated that he was a “close personal friend” of Mr Paterson. His wife also claimed that he was a “close personal friend” of his late wife. Committee colleagues then agreed that he should be removed.
Two Tory MPs argued that Sir Bernard felt compelled to withdraw from the proceedings because of ’embarrassment’ over the email sent by his wife.
Both Sir Bernard and Lady Jenkin declined comment last night.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is to establish standards rules review in order to heal Westminster’s bitter scandal row
Brendan Carlin, Anna Mikhailova and the Mail on Sunday
The commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is tomorrow set to launch a bid to heal Westminster’s bitter sleaze row.
In the aftermath of Owen Paterson’s scandal, he is contemplating proposing to review the Commons standards procedures.
Sources indicated that the review might be done in consultation avec Chris Bryant, Labour MP and chairman of standards committee.
Commons insiders stated that Speaker Henriksen would make a decision after the scheduled three hour debate about the sleaze issue.
Last night there were predictions that a review would lead to MPs found guilty of financial misdemeanours being able to appeal to a retired judge – one of the Tories’ key demands in last week’s stormy exchanges in the House. There are also suggestions that the review could include looking at how MPs were allowed to earn thousands of pounds from outside interests on top of their Commons’ salary of £81,932.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle is the Commons Speaker and will tomorrow launch a campaign to repair Westminster’s bitter sleaze rows.
Tomorrow’s Labour, Liberal, and Tory debate will see them vent their anger at Boris Johnson’s failure to use Mr Paterson’s verdict to call for reforms to the standards system.
As a protest against being told to vote for the suspension of the Paterson verdict, but Mr Johnson was forced to withdraw the plan, Philip Davies (Yorkshire MP) sent an explosive letter to Tory Whips. He said, “Please don’t ask me ever to vote for any other candidate ever again.” Yesterday, I voted (as you all know, under protest), for something that would support the party during a difficult time, and received abuse from my constituents. The party then overturns the decision.
Adding to the controversy, last night the Tory Party was accused of abusing the honours system by offering seats in the Lords to a select group of multi-millionaire donors who give more than £3 million to the party.
An investigation by the Sunday Times and the Open Democracy website reported that wealthy benefactors appear to be guaranteed a peerage if they take on the temporary role of party treasurer and increase their donations beyond £3 million. In the past 20 years, all 16 of the party’s main treasurers – apart from the most recent, who stood down two months ago after donating £3.8 million – were offered a seat in the Lords, they reported.
Yesterday night, a Government spokesperson stated that peerages are long-lasting contributions to civic life. They also reflect a willingness and ability to contribute further to public life in their capacity as legislators in the Second Chamber.
“It is unfair to criticize individuals who have chosen to support or give to political parties.
The furious Red Wall Tory backlash that could kill off brigade of veteran Tory backbenchers who battled for Brexit dubbed The Spartans By Glen Owen, Political Editor for the Mail on Sunday
It is being described in Westminster as ‘the end of the Spartans’ – the brigade of veteran Tory backbenchers who battled for Brexit and made Theresa May’s life a misery but ended up dying on the hill of Owen Paterson’s business interests.
But just as Spartan society collapsed in ancient Greece when it was sacked by the Visigoths in 396 AD, so the likes of former Cabinet Minister David Davis and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg are facing the fury of the new generation of ‘Red Wall’ MPs: they are raging about the amount of political capital they spent trying to protect Mr Paterson from the consequences of breaching lobbying rules over his £500,000 of outside earnings.
The people who are close to Downing Street (where Boris Johnson and his allies were shaken over the Paterson saga) predict it will trigger a changing of guard in the parliamentary party. Sources said that although they had good intentions at the beginning, their plan was ultimately ill-conceived and self-destructive. They are losing the trust of the Commons’ new generation.
‘The Spartans’ – a warrior class – was the name given to the most hardcore members of the European Research Group (ERG) who pressurised David Cameron into calling the EU referendum and then defied Mrs May over the Brexit deal she tried to negotiate with Brussels, securing a harder Brexit and helping to pave the way for Mr Johnson’s premiership.
the likes of former Cabinet Minister David Davis (pictured) and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg are facing the fury of the new generation of ‘Red Wall’ MPs: they are raging about the amount of political capital they spent trying to protect Mr Paterson from the consequences of breaching lobbying rules over his £500,000 of outside earnings
The core group gathered at the Carlton Club in September for a dinner featuring smoked trout, cucumber, boiled quail’s eggs, and capers. Next, lamb rump was served with confit peppers and sun-dried tomatoes.
Following the last week’s events which left Prime Minister Paterson beaten and in danger of losing his seat in North Shropshire, there have not been any celebratory dinners. MPs from the Red Wall seats – former Labour bastions which fell to the Tories for the first time in 2019 – have been exchanging bitter messages on their WhatsApp groups about the ‘arrogance’ of the Spartans and Mr Johnson’s failure to avert the disaster.
One member of the new intake, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, is said to have called Paterson a c*** in the division lobby, while others spoke darkly about the Prime Minister having ‘lost’ the party.
The Government is placing the blame on Mr Rees Mogg, Chief Whip Mark Spencer, and Declan Lyons, No 10 Political Secretary, for this fiasco.
Sources claim that Rees-Mogg was an emotional’vector’ to the pressure exerted by fellow Spartans, and expressed concern about the impact Paterson’s suicide had on him.
The Government is placing the blame on Jacob Rees Mogg (pictured), Chief Whip Mark Spencer, and Declan Lyons as No 10 Political Secretary.
Despite the misgivings of a number of No 10 aides, including Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield, Mr Lyons agreed that Mr Paterson’s suspension should be blocked – linked to a simultaneous overhaul of Parliament’s standards system – while Mr Spencer took the disastrous decision to whip it through the Commons and obtained the support of Mr Johnson, just back from a hectic round of appearances at the COP26 summit in Glasgow followed by a late-evening dinner with former colleagues from the pro-Paterson Daily Telegraph.
Labour won an easy win by refusing support for the newly proposed standards committee.
Sources said that Spencer will not be trusted again. They will never trust him again to advocate for a cause. But Spencer’s allies challenge his claim that Spencer was too enthusiastic about forcing the vote through.
Dominic Cummings (Johnson’s former advisor and nemesis) seized on the chaos, claiming that it was a preemptive strike against Kathryn Stone. She was the Parliamentary Commissary for Standards. In case Kathryn decides to become a member of the Electoral Commission, she will be investigating whether Tory donors were used to pay to refurbish the flat in Downing Street.
The saga has renewed familiar calls for ‘more grey hair’ in No 10 and the appointment of ‘a Willie Whitelaw figure’ – Margaret Thatcher’s seasoned Deputy – who can ‘horizon scan’ for problems and deter Mr Johnson from making any more ill-fated decisions.