Tuesday 9 August 2022 10:25 PM Top Tory's slur at critics of Boris Johnson probe as he accuses them of ... trends now
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A senior Tory faced a backlash tonight after he claimed there was a ‘terrorist campaign’ to discredit the Commons investigation into Boris Johnson over Partygate.
Sir Bernard Jenkin said some Conservative MPs were seeking to undermine the inquiry into whether the Prime Minister misled Parliament over lockdown gatherings.
This week Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries called on Sir Bernard and other Tory MPs on the Commons privileges committee, which is carrying out the probe, to withdraw from the ‘witch-hunt’, labelling it a ‘Machiavellian process’.
Sir Bernard Jenkin said some Conservative MPs were seeking to undermine the inquiry into whether the Prime Minister misled Parliament over lockdown gatherings
In an extraordinary outburst today, Sir Bernard called on critics of the process to ‘write to the committee’ if they have concerns and ‘not conduct a sort of terrorist campaign’ in the media.
Allies of the Prime Minister immediately hit back at him, saying ‘genuine criticism is not terrorism’.
The row came as Tory MPs labelled the probe into Mr Johnson a ‘stitch-up’, mounting further pressure on the privileges committee to call it off.
But the committee said the inquiry was voted for unanimously by MPs, and can be called off only if they hold another vote.
