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Boris Johnson allies launched ‘unprecedented’ campaign to undermine privileges committee Ex-ministers campaigned to undermine Johnson Partygate inquiry, says report
(32 minutes later)
Committee points finger of blame at MPs including Nadine Dorries, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel Privileges committee says seven Tory MPs and three peers risked discrediting system of checks and balances in parliament
Conservative MPs and peers close to Boris Johnson launched an “unprecedented and co-ordinated” campaign to undermine the privileges committee, a new report has said. Former cabinet ministers and allies of Boris Johnson have been accused of launching an “unprecedented and coordinated” campaign to undermine the inquiry into whether he misled parliament over Partygate.
They came under scrutiny after concerns were raised during the investigation into Johnson’s Partygate denials about a sustained and coordinated attempt to undermine the credibility of the committee. The finding came in a new report by the privileges committee, which posed a fresh problem for Rishi Sunak as it recommended toughening up the rules on interference in such inquiries and condemned the behaviour of former ministers.
Its members were attacked in a bid to “prevent them from doing that duty”, the report that found Johnson misled parliament said. Seven Tory MPs and three peers – including a serving government minister – were named and told their behaviour risked discrediting a fundamental arm of the system of checks and balances in parliament.
A shorter, follow-up report was published on Thursday which sought to address the issue more directly and pointed the finger of blame at Johnson allies, including Nadine Dorries, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel. The former cabinet ministers Nadine Dorries, Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg were named, as were other former frontbenchers, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Mark Jenkinson, Andrea Jenkyns and Michael Fabricant.
More details soon … Zac Goldsmith, a Foreign Office minister, and two other Tory peers – Lord Cruddas and Lord Greenhalgh – were similarly criticised.
Earlier this month, the privileges committee said it would write a special report on the issues it encountered during its 14-month inquiry into Johnson’s Partygate denials. In its ruling, the committee found he committed five contempts of parliament.
In its follow-up report published on Thursday, the committee said some senior Tories waged a campaign across newspaper, radio and social media to discredit it and the seven MPs that serve on the cross-party group.
They all tried to “undermine procedures of the House of Commons”, and two MPs in particular – Dorries and Rees-Mogg – mounted “the most vociferous attacks … from the platform of their own hosted TV shows” on TalkTV and GB News, respectively.
“Attacks by experienced members are all the more concerning as they would have known that during the course of an investigation it was not possible for the privileges committee to respond to the attacks,” the report said.
The four Tory members of the committee were particularly targeted, the committee said.
It added: “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.
“It had significant personal impact on individual members and raised significant security concerns.”
If such abuse continued in future, no MPs would want to serve on the committee that investigates the most serious breaches of parliamentary rules, the report continued. “If that happens … the house might feel compelled to cede to an external authority the responsibility for protection of its rights and privileges.”