Privileges Committee Report

Jun 19, 2023 | Parliamentary Work

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This week saw the long-awaited publication of the Privileges Committee Report into Boris Johnson’s statements to the House of Commons regarding Partygate. We didn’t need another report to tell us that serial liar Johnson knowingly broke the stringent Covid rules he imposed on the rest of us and knowingly lied about it. However, it was important to hold him to account for lying to Parliament and the public that voted us in.

I voted to accept the report’s findings. Whilst 118 Tory MPs also joined me, the vast majority abstained, and seven rebels even went so far as to reject the findings in a last stand for their beloved former boss. Rishi Sunak, who abstained, claimed that he “didn’t want to influence” proceedings. This excuse is about as plausible as his predecessor’s claims that he didn’t know there were parties going on in his own home. As I said during the debate, the entire party has been complicit in this scandal from start to finish, going along with Boris Johnson’s lies until it became apparent just how unpopular a figure he had become.