Thursday 21 July 2022 10:45 PM Partygate probe 'has become a witch hunt': Backlash as MPs shift goalposts trends now
The controversial Commons inquiry into Partygate has turned into a witch hunt against Boris Johnson after it introduced much stricter rules, allies of the PM said yesterday.
Under the new terms of the probe, the Prime Minister could be booted out as an MP if he is found to have misled Parliament.
And he can now be found in contempt for unintentionally misleading the Commons about lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street – even if there is no evidence he deliberately lied.
Johnson supporters last night accused the privileges committee of unfairly moving the goalposts in order to make it easier for him to be punished. ‘He has accepted he got things wrong and he has corrected the record,’ one source said. ‘But he did not do so intentionally – that has always been the bar, both for misleading parliament and for the ministerial code. It doesn’t feel like he is getting a fair trial – it feels more like a witch hunt.’
Under the new terms of the probe, the Prime Minister could be booted out as an MP if he is found to have misled Parliament. And he can now be found in contempt for unintentionally misleading the Commons about lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street – even if there is no evidence he deliberately lied
The committee is being chaired by veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman (pictured) even though she branded the Prime Minister ‘unspeakable’ and ‘disgraceful’ for breaking Covid rules. The other MPs on the committee are Tories Andy Carter, Alberto Costa, Laura Farris and Sir Bernard Jenkin, along with Labour’s Yvonne Fovargue and the SNP’s Allan Dorans. In a report published yesterday the committee vowed to continue with its probe even though Mr Johnson has agreed to leave No 10 when the next Tory leader is chosen
The committee also considered whether, if Mr Johnson were to be found in contempt and then suspended from the House for at least ten sitting days, it should trigger a ‘recall petition’. That would mean that if at least 10 per cent of electors in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency demanded a by-election, Mr Johnson would then lose his seat as an MP – although he could stand in the subsequent contest. Such moves usually follow reports by a different body, the standards committee. But Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle (pictured) agreed that the privileges committee was concerned with the conduct of MPs, so its findings would be subject to the Recall of MPs Act
Tory MP Mark Jenkinson added: ‘It’s just another example of the vendetta being pursued against one of the most successful politicians of our time.’ But he warned: ‘This could come back to bite them because the lower you set the bar, the easier it is to trip over it. They are
