Latest News
Johnson Allies Might Be Punished For Their Campaign Against Partygate Committee
The Privileges Committee drew attention to remarks made by senior MPs, including Ms. Dorries, Mr. Rees-Mogg, and Dame Priti Patel, as well as peers and a serving minister, Lord Goldsmith, alleging they were part of a coordinated effort to undermine the panel’s work.
The committee advised lawmakers to think carefully about whether their actions might be construed as acts of contempt for the legislature and what further action to take.
The Privileges Committee finally sparked Mr. Johnson’s departure from Parliament in response to its recommendation that he should be subject to a lengthy suspension for misleading the Commons with his denials about lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
His supporters routinely called the Labour-led but Tory-majority committee a “witch hunt” and “kangaroo court”; Mr. Johnson was later revealed to have participated in the campaign against the panel that was looking into him.
In the study, Mark Jenkinson, Sir Michael Fabricant, Brendan Clarke-Smith, and Dame Andrea Jenkyns are among the other lawmakers who are quoted.
The MPs under fire, according to the report, “did not choose to engage through any proper process, such as the submission of letters or evidence to our inquiry, but by attacking the members of the committee, to influence their judgment.”
The report added: “The committee is particularly concerned about attacks mounted by experienced colleagues, including a serving minister of the Crown, a former leader of the House, and a former secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sport.”
GB News role, the committee said “two of the Members mounting the most vociferous attacks on the committee did so from the platform of their own hosted TV shows”.
The report also highlighted the involvement of Lord Cruddas and Lord Greenhalgh, both given peerages by Mr. Johnson, in a Conservative Post campaign putting pressure on the four Tory members of the committee to quit.
The report said, “Pressure was applied particularly to Conservative members of the committee”.
“This had the clear intention to drive those members off the committee and so to frustrate the intention of the House that the inquiry should be carried out, or to prevent the inquiry coming to a conclusion which the critics did not want.”
There were also “sustained attempts to undermine and challenge the impartiality” of the committee’s Labour chairwoman, Harriet Harman.
“This unprecedented and coordinated pressure did not affect the conduct or outcome of our inquiry. However, it had a significant personal impact on individual members and raised significant security concerns.”
The committee said it will be for the House of Commons to decide “what further action, if any, to take” in respect of the MPs named in the report. It suggested that MPs should be asked to agree that seeking to “impugn the integrity of the committee” or attempt to “lobby or intimidate” its members “is itself capable of being contempt” of Parliament.
The report is provisionally scheduled to be considered by MPs on July 10th.
The committee also said the Lords should be made aware of the report and consider what action to take over the peers identified as part of the campaign.
Labour called on the UK prime minister to back the report’s conclusions and accused Rishi Sunak of allowing “senior members of his own party to undermine and attack Britain’s democratic institutions”.
Mr Clarke-Smith said he was “shocked and disappointed” to be named in the report.
Committee members pointed to his tweet from June 9th, when he said: “Tonight we saw the end result of a parliamentary witch-hunt which would put a banana republic to shame.”
But in response to the latest report, the Bassetlaw MP said: “This raises serious questions about free speech in a democratic society, and my colleagues and I will continue to defend these principles going forward.”
Mr. Fabricant was criticized for tweeting about the Johnson probe: “Serious questions will need to be asked about the manner in which the investigation was conducted.
“These were no jurists, as was apparent by the tone of the examination. The question of caliber, malice, and prejudice will need to be answered now or by historians.”
Following his inclusion in the latest report, he said: “I stand by my statement. Some of the members of the Privileges Committee treated their witness, Boris Johnson, with contempt through gestures and other actions.
“Had it been in a law court, the judge would have called them to order. Respect for the campaign committee needs to be earned.”
Mr. Jenkinson accused the committee of “gross overreach” after being named in the report, claiming he was being criticized for “a tweet that did not refer to them and was about the media witch hunt of Boris Johnson”.
Shadow leader of the House of Commons Thangam Debbonaire said: “It’s time Rishi Sunak condemned his Conservative colleagues who have sought to override Parliament’s standards system to get one of their own off the hook.
“He must accept the committee’s damming conclusions and make time for MPs to approve the report in full.”
Deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy Cooper said Mr. Sunak should order an investigation into whether there was collusion between the former prime minister and his allies, suggesting it looked like a “gongs for cronies scandal”.
