Boris Johnson: Attacks on Partygate inquiry are out of order, says MPon June 12, 2023 at 12:09 pm

Attacks on MPs investigating Boris Johnson are “bang out of order”, Labour’s Sir Chris Bryant has said, after the ex-PM called the Privileges Committee a “kangaroo court”.

Mr Bryant, who chairs the committee but recused himself from the inquiry into Partygate, criticised Mr Johnson’s allies for their “confected anger”.

No 10 said it did not want to see people “unfairly traducing” the probe.

The committee is meeting on Monday to conclude their investigation.

For almost a year, the seven-person committee – a majority of whom are Conservatives – have been considering whether Mr Johnson misled MPs about what he knew about Covid breaches in Downing Street.

The report will be finalised on Monday and is likely to be published this week. In evidence given in March, Mr Johnson admitted misleading Parliament, but denied doing it on purpose.

The committee had been preparing to recommend suspending Mr Johnson as an MP for 10 days or more, the BBC was told, a threshold which would have resulted in a recall petition among his constituents and a potential by-election.

After receiving an advanced copy of the report on Friday, Mr Johnson shocked Westminster by announcing his resignation as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

In his resignation letter, he vehemently attacked MPs on the committee, accusing them of trying to “drive him out of Parliament”.

He said most members of the committee, including Labour’s Harriet Harman who took over from Mr Bryant as chair of the inquiry “had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence”.

On Sunday, his close ally Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the report was “clearly partisan” and “biased”.

However, Mr Bryant issued a strong defence of the MPs telling the BBC: “This was a committee set up by whole House of Commons, it had a Conservative majority on it and it is now being judged on the basis of a report that no one has even seen yet – absolutely appalling and preposterous.”

“We have enough nastiness in politics without people stirring this up. People like Jacob Rees-Mogg should be utterly ashamed of themselves.”

Asked about the criticism, Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the committee was “properly set up” and that the government would “in no way criticise the work of the committee who are carrying out what Parliament has asked them to do”.

“People are entitled to express opinions. What we wouldn’t want to see is people unfairly traducing the work of a legitimate committee.”

Members of the Privileges Committee have been offered additional security, the BBC’s Chris Mason says.

Our political editor says there is widespread anger among the MPs’ colleagues – from many political parties – that the tenor, tone and language of some of the criticisms of the committee, from Mr Johnson and others, has contributed to an atmosphere where committee members feel vulnerable.

He says there is additional irritation that, some believe, the integrity of committee members has been impugned without them being able to respond to it publicly.

Mr Johnson stood down from Parliament just hours after Downing Street published his resignation honours list without the names of key supporters, including Nadine Dorries, Sir Alok Sharma and Nigel Adams.

All three had been expecting to be appointed to the House of Lords.

Competing claims about how and why the names were removed are now at the heart of a rift within the Tory party following the former PM’s resignation.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) – the official body for checking and vetting new peers – has confirmed it rejected eight of Mr Johnson’s nominations on the grounds of propriety.

On Monday, Mr Gove defended the decision to pass Mr Johnson’s honours list to the King before the Privileges Committee report was published, insisting this was a “separate procedure”.

Within 24 hours of the list being published, both Ms Dorries and Mr Adams resigned as MPs – triggering by-elections in their constituencies, both of which are considered safe seats for the Conservatives.

Mr Johnson’s resignation also triggers a by-election in his marginal constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.