Evidence of attempts to undermine or interfere in the parliamentary inquiry into Boris Johnson’s Partygate denials has been laid out by the Commons privileges committee. It took the significant step of naming a number of the former prime minister’s allies – and attached examples of commentary on TV, in newspapers and across social media.
Here is a selection of the most egregious comments: Jacob Rees-Mogg on GB News, 20 March 2023 “The privileges committee is not even a proper legal setup. It has a gossamer of constitutional propriety thrown over it, but it is in fact a political committee against Boris Johnson.” Nadine Dorries on TalkTV, 23 March 2023 “I don’t think there was ever a world in which this committee was going to find Boris innocent. The committee have demonstrated very clearly that they have decided early on to find him guilty. The committee knew that they had not a shred of evidence to prove that he misled with intent. They changed the rules, lowered the bar and inserted the vague term reckless into the terms of reference. Boris Johnson will be found guilty by this kangaroo court. There is no doubt about that and that in itself will be a disgraceful and possibly unlawful conclusion with serious reputational consequences.” Priti Patel on GB News, 16 March 2023 “How can a handful of MPs in a committee really be that objective in light of some of the individual comments that have been made? I don’t want to name people, but you know, it is a fact, the lack of transparency – the lack of accountability … I think there is a culture of collusion quite frankly involved here.” Andrea Jenkyns on Twitter, 21 March 2023 “I hope to see him fully exonerated and to put an end to this kangaroo court.” Brendan Clarke-Smith on Twitter, 9 June 2023 “Tonight we saw the end result of a parliamentary witch-hunt which would put a banana republic to shame. It is the people of this country who elect and decide on their MPs. It’s called democracy and we used to value it here. Sadly this no longer appears to be the case.” Michael Fabricant on Twitter, 9 June 2023 “Serious questions will need to be asked about the manner in which the investigation was conducted. These were no jurists as was apparent by the tone of the examination. The question of calibre, malice and prejudice will need to be answered now or by historians.” Mark Jenkinson on Twitter, 9 June 2023 “When the witch-hunt has been forgotten, future generations will look back in astonishment.” Zac Goldsmith on Twitter, 9 June 2023 [Sharing a tweet calling the inquiry a witch-hunt and kangaroo court]: “Exactly this. There was only ever going to be one outcome and the evidence was totally irrelevant to it.”