Downing Street has expressed confidence in the work of a parliamentary committee which has been the subject of attacks by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his allies.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said on Monday: “This is a properly set-up committee that the House has voted to carry out their work.
“The government will in no way traduce or criticise the work of the committee who are doing exactly what Parliament has asked them to do.”
‘Witch Hunt’
The Privileges Committee, which is led by Labour MP Harriet Harman but has a Conservative majority, has been investigating whether Johnson misled Parliament when he repeatedly claimed that COVID-19 lockdown rules had been “followed at all times” in Downing Street during the pandemic.In a statement on Friday, Johnson wrote, “I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear—much to my amazement—that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament.”
“Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts,” he alleged, adding, “This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.”
Johnson also claimed the probe has been a “witch hunt” intended to “take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result,” despite the fact that the Privileges Committee has a Tory majority and includes arch-Brexiteer Sir Bernard Jenkin.
He said he was “bewildered and appalled” that he could be “forced out, anti-democratically,” by a committee “with such egregious bias.”
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson’s close ally Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the committee’s report was “clearly partisan” and “biased.”
No One ‘Indispensable’
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove offered his support to the Privileges Committee, rejecting Johnson’s characterisation of it as a “kangaroo court.”He told the BBC that it is a “properly constituted committee in the House of Commons” and “the people who served on that committee were asked by the House of Commons collectively to do a particular job.”
“It’s a job that has required careful work on their part and no little effort to make a series of significant judgments.
“So I have respect for the work that they have done. And I think that we need to respect again the integrity of the process, and wait until the report is published before then debating its conclusions and the consequences.”
Talking to ITV, Gove said Johnson’s departure is a “loss” but “none of us are indispensable.”
“There are big figures in politics who depart the scene, and then there is a new generation that takes things forward.”
‘Bang Out of Order’
Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant said attacks on MPs investigating the former prime minister are “bang out of order.”Bryant, who chairs the Privileges Committee but recused himself from the inquiry, criticised Johnson’s allies for their “confected anger” and called the attacks “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,” he said.
