Sunday 7 August 2022 02:01 AM MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Boris Johnson has already paid a heavy price… so axe ... trends now
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How can we explain the continuing determination of MPs to go ahead with a tribunal empowered to humiliate and damage Boris Johnson for misdeeds to which he has already confessed and for which he has suffered the great penalty of being forced from the highest office in Government?
The Commons Committee of Privileges has extraordinary powers to grill Mr Johnson in public and even (incredibly and amazingly) to force him to quit as an MP. It is due to open its proceedings in early September when Parliament returns.
The official explanation is that the Committee is investigating the broad question of whether the House of Commons was misled. They say that what they call 'political developments' are 'of no relevance to that'.
The 'developments' they brush aside so lightly are a semi-revolution including the spectacular resignation of the Head of Government and the current Tory leadership election.
The Commons Committee of Privileges has extraordinary powers to grill Mr Johnson in public and even (incredibly and amazingly) to force him to quit as an MP. It is due to open its proceedings in early September when Parliament returns
But the Committee insist woodenly that this is of no matter, saying: 'The House charged the Committee with this task and we are obliged to continue with it. Unlike other Committees, we do not set our own agenda.' Perhaps. But viewed from outside, it is a bit like the purser of the Titanic continuing an inquiry into a lost set of keys to the captain's drinks cupboard long after everyone involved, and the ship itself, have plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Committee seem also to have forgotten the normal rules of due
