MPs have voted to back a controversial review into disciplinary procedures, which has resulted in a Conservative MP avoiding suspension after breaching lobbying rules.
Owen Paterson has avoided punishment, despite being found to have committed an “egregious” breach of the rules.
Boris Johnson urged Conservatives not to back the cross-party Standards Committee’s call for a six-week ban from Parliament for the North Shropshire MP, who was found to have repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of two companies paying him more than £100,000 per year.
Instead, MPs backed an amendment calling for a review of his case, which will be conducted by a Tory-majority committee.
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Ministers had placed Tories under a three-line whip to support the amendment, tabled by former Commons leader Dame Andrea Leadsom, according to one senior Conservative MP.
Opposition MPs blasted the vote as a "grubby stitch-up" labelling the Tories as "rotten to the core", while the FDA union accused the government of attempting to "mark its own homework"
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the move amounted to government "corruption".
MPs voted 250 to 232 - a majority of 18 - to approve the amendment to consider reforming the parliamentary standards system, preventing the immediate suspension Mr Paterson.
There were shouts of “shame” and “what have you done to this place” as the results of the vote were declared.
Every Labour MP, as well as the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, voted against the move, while 13 Tory MPs voted against the government whip and 98 abstained from voting.
Stockport MP William Wragg was one of the Conservative MPs to vote against the move.
You can find out how your MP voted using the widget below.
An investigation by Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, found Mr Paterson repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods.
The Commons Standards Committee said his actions were an “egregious” breach of the rules on paid advocacy by MPs and recommended that he should be suspended for 30 sitting days.
But Mr Paterson accused the commissioner of making up her mind before she had even spoken to him and called the process “biased” and “not fair”.
The MP also said the manner in which the investigation was carried out had “undoubtedly” played a “major role” in the decision of his wife Rose to take her own life last year.
As well as reviewing Mr Paterson’s case, the amendment calls for the committee, which would be led by former culture secretary John Whittingdale, to conduct an examination of the standards system.
It would look at whether MPs should get similar rights to those on offer in other workplace disputes such as "the right of representation, examination of witnesses and appeal”.
Mr Paterson has said today's vote will allow him to clear his name after “two years of hell”, but anti-corruption campaigners, unions, political observers and Opposition MPs have condemned the move.
Sir Keir, writing in the Guardian, said “the rot starts at the top” and “we have a Prime Minister whose name is synonymous with sleaze, dodgy deals and hypocrisy”.
A spokesman for deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said it was “absurd” that the amendment surrounding standards was being debated at all and dubbed the situation a “grubby stitch-up”.
“The Prime Minister didn’t deny that Owen Paterson broke the rules. He didn’t demur from any of the content of the report," the spokesperson said.
“Angela, like all MPs, wants to ensure that the standards process is rigorous and working effectively. However, that is entirely separate to the issue at hand today, which is very simple and is not about making the system more effective or anything of that nature.
“It’s entirely based on a Conservative government seeking to use its majority in the Commons to overturn the findings of an independent cross-party committee.
“Hopefully enough Conservative MPs will see sense.”
Labour’s shadow justice secretary David Lammy said the government was "tearing up their contract with the British people".
He tweeted: “This vote is rotten to the core. The Tories think rules are something only little people have to follow, not them.”
Ms Rayner said Labour would "not be taking any part in this sham process or any corrupt committee", while the Liberal Democrats said they would also boycott the new standards committee.
Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell said it was a "shameful day". She tweeted: "MPs should be held to account. When an independent process finds one took huge sums of money to lobby, it’s corruption, simple."
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, said: “It is clear that Members of Parliament are more concerned about protecting one of their own rather than following their Code of Conduct and upholding standards.
“The vicious and orchestrated campaign of personal attacks against the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards – a public servant who cannot answer back – is completely unacceptable.”
He said that MPs “are once again attempting to mark their own homework and moving the goalposts after the event”.
Following the Commons vote, Mr Paterson said: “The process I was subjected to did not comply with natural justice.
“No proper investigation was undertaken by the commissioner or committee.
“The Standards Commissioner has admitted making up her mind before speaking to me or any witnesses.
“All I have ever asked is to have the opportunity to make my case through a fair process.
“The decision today in Parliament means that I will now have that opportunity.
“After two years of hell, I now have the opportunity to clear my name.
“I am extremely grateful to the PM, the Leader of the House and my colleagues for ensuring that fundamental changes will be made to internal parliamentary systems of justice.
“I hope that no other MP will ever again be subject to this shockingly inadequate process.”
The MP could have faced a possible by-election if the suspension had been approved.
