NORTH Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has received support from a senior member of his own party ahead of the vote into whether he should be suspended from Parliament.

Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has questioned the fairness of the investigation that found Mr Paterson had breached Commons lobbying rules ahead of a vote on his possible six-week suspension.

The Commons Standards Committee described the breach as “egregious” after an investigation found he lobbied ministers and officials for two companies paying him more than £100,000 per year.

But Mr Paterson has angrily disputed the findings by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone, and allies are considering ways to fight the suspension.

Mr Rees-Mogg expressed sympathy for his claim that the commissioner did not speak to 17 witnesses who came forward to support him, describing that decision as “interesting”.

The Commons Leader told his ConservativeHome podcast: “It is always very important that systems appear to be fair, and therefore if somebody has witnesses, it would normally appear to be fair that those witnesses should be heard.

“The commissioner in her report that was adopted…said the witnesses weren’t needed because the evidence they gave wasn’t relevant to the inquiry.

“And that is an interesting view to come to, because other people might say: ‘How do you know whether it was relevant to the inquiry until you’ve taken their evidence and have found out the precise context of how things were done?’”

Mr Rees-Mogg said there is “precedence” for amending a motion to suspend an MP, saying it was last done in 1947, but it was unclear if Mr Paterson’s allies would table an amendment.

The decision to accept an amendment lies with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

Sir Lindsay’s spokeswoman did not deny a report in the Times that suggested he believes overturning the suspension would bring the House into disrepute.

Ms Stone’s investigation found Mr Paterson repeatedly lobbied on behalf of two companies for which he was acting as a paid consultant – Randox, and Lynn’s Country Foods.

But the MP struck back, saying the investigation finding he breached rules on paid advocacy by MPs was a “biased process and not fair”.

It was unclear whether Conservative MPs will be whipped to vote a certain way over the suspension, or whether they will be given a free vote.

Committee on Standards chairman Chris Bryant urged MPs to “read the report in full, with a fair and open mind” and warned against voting it down in what would be an unprecedented move in the committee’s roughly 36-year history.

“We reviewed and published all the witness statements in detail and gave Mr Paterson every opportunity to make his case. The facts however speak for themselves,” he added.

“This was a unanimous and cross-party report. No standards committee report in our history has been voted down.

“Voting or watering down the sanction would do serious reputational damage to Parliament and would open politics up to a new scandal of paid lobbying by MPs.”