What next as North Shropshire by-election is officially confirmed?

Owen Paterson resigned on Thursday, capping a chaotic 24 hours for Boris Johnson's administration.

His decision has triggered a by-election in his seat of North Shropshire, but there is uncertainty over when it is likely to take place and a fair degree of confusion over the process.

In line with a centuries-old parliamentary procedure, in order to be allowed to give up his seat, Conservative Mr Paterson has been formally appointed to an office of the Crown – Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

This is effectively a 'non-job' which has little meaning other than to satisfy old procedures and confirm Mr Paterson's official resignation.

It means the by-election process can now start - but only once Shropshire Council's returning officer has received a writ from the House of Commons.

The council says it has not yet received the writ, which comes ahead of the publication of the notice of election that heralds a formal '25 working days' election period to the date of the poll.

Although no date has yet been set, MPs expect the by-election to take place within weeks rather than months, which is why the main parties are already busy compiling candidate lists.

That being said, dates are still yet to be set for by-elections in the country's other two vacant seats: the Southend West seat of David Amess, who was stabbed to death last month, and the Old Bexley and Sidcup seat of former minister James Brokenshire, who died of cancer last month.

Mr Paterson first won the Tory-dominated seat of North Shropshire in 1997. He retained it with a majority of 22,949 in 2019, an increase of 6,594 on his 2017 majority.

There is also the not-so-small matter of the review into the parliamentary standards watchdog to sort out.

Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said the Government still believed there was a case for a new appeals process to be introduced. But for the time being the future of the existing cross-party parliamentary standards committee, chaired by Chris Bryant, remains in doubt.

Why is Owen Paterson now a Crown Steward?

Elected MPs have no right to resign mid-term and there is no official process for them to do so.

The Parliament website says that "unless they die or are expelled they must become disqualified if they wish to retire before the end of a Parliament".

However they can be made ineligible to be an MP under law by taking one of two offices of profit under the Crown – Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer grants these unpaid roles which have no responsibilities and only exist for when an MP needs to disqualify themselves from the Commons.

By law, taking on one of these titles immediately bars a person from being an MP and thus open up the seat for a by-election.

The former MP holds the position until another applicant is appointed by the Chancellor or they apply for release from it. Every new warrant issued revokes the previous holder.

Thus, in future, Owen Paterson could stand as an MP again in future should he wish to do so.

In a statement, the Treasury said: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed the Rt Hon Owen William Paterson to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead."

When will the by-election take place?

We don't yet know. The earliest date it could be held is in the week beginning December 6.

The date can only be set once the local returning officer receives a writ from the House of Commons.

Now Owen Paterson has officially resigned, it is expected the write will soon be sent but until it arrives the process can't move forward.

One it does, the notice of election will be published and there will be 25 working days between its publication and election day.

A spokesman for Shropshire Council explained: "The process for setting the date for by-election date starts when the writ from the House of Commons is received by or on behalf of the returning officer. At this stage we don’t know when that will be.

"Once this is received the notice of election is published from which the formal 25 working days election period begins to the date of the poll.

"Until the formal writ is moved to start the election process, we cannot say when the by election for the North Shropshire seat will be held."

Who will be standing in the North Shropshire by-election?

No names of individual candidates have yet been confirmed, with the only certainty that Owen Paterson will not be on the ballot sheet.

Casual talks took place over the potential of opposition parties fielding a unity candidate however the move was not considered viable and both Labour and the Lib Dems have confirmed they will fight the by-election.

Reform UK, which was formerly the Brexit Party, has also confirmed it will be fielding a candidate and the Greens, who fared well at the local elections this year, are also expected to stand a candidate.

Each party will be selecting candidates in the coming days and weeks.

Labour's Graeme Currie and the Green's Duncan Kerr have both stood in the constituency before and have expressed an interest in standing again - but the decision will not be down to them.

A Conservative Party spokesman said its candidate would be chosen by the local constituency party.

What next for Owen Paterson?

Downing Street has declined to rule out the possibility that Mr Paterson could be handed a peerage in the wake of his resignation.

A No 10 spokesman said: “I’ve seen the speculation on that, there’s obviously a formal process for peerages.”

A Government source insisted that no discussions about sending Mr Paterson to the Lords have taken place.

As well as resigning as an MP, Mr Paterson has said he will step down from the consultancy work which ultimately led to his resignation.

He was paid more than £100,000 a year by Randox and Lynn's Country Foods - firms he was found to have lobbied for in a breach of parliamentary rules - but will no longer work for them.

Instead he has said he wants to spend time with his family and on suicide prevention work. In June last year his wife Rose committed suicide at the family home near Ellesmere.

The MP thanked people who had sent messages of support as he confirmed he would be stopping work as a consultant.