It wasn’t just like that Boris Johnson right today.
So was British democracy – and I am sorry to say that it has been undermined in the most appalling and embarrassing way, with devastating political consequences that will reverberate for years to come.
For several months now I have been calling out the mad witch hunt for the last Prime Minister elected by the British people.
But the judge, jury and executioners of the Privileges Committee in Westminster’s Grimond Room – led by Labour’s Boris hater-in-chief Harriet Harmanwho handed down a guilty verdict months ago before seeing a piece of evidence proved even more kangaroo court than I feared possible.
Without any legal standards or protections, Boris was subjected to more than three hours of state-sanctioned harassment over the course of the pandemic over the most tedious technicalities of so-called Downing Street ‘gatherings’, most of which he failed to attend or turn around. standing up for a few minutes to give a farewell speech for a departing member of staff.
Boris was subjected to more than three hours of state-sanctioned harassment over the most tedious technicalities of so-called Downing Street ‘gatherings’
Boris – the electorally popular Brexit champion and major threat to a future Labor government – was in the dock and at the end of his political career
As Boris emphasized in his powerful and well-prepared opening statement, “I am here to tell you hand on heart that I have not lied to the House. Those statements were made in good faith and based on what I believed at the time.’
Even two decades later, Tony Blair has never faced this kind of parliamentary scrutiny, despite not telling the truth about the motivation behind a war that killed 179 brave Britons.
Nor is Matt Hancock, the real villain of the Covid-19 era, whose cavalier decision about testing led to positive patients entering care homes and directly leading to thousands of deaths.
Instead it is Boris – the electorally popular Brexit champion and the great threat to a future Labor government – who found himself in the dock, facing the end of his political career, over ludicrous six-foot rules, nonsensical guidance and a wine and cheese night in the Downing Street garden.
Let me be clear, these rules should never have been imposed on the British public.
I have spent virtually all of the lockdowns attacking the government and Boris himself for inflicting such anti-social horrors on us.
It was always inexcusable and unforgivable to ban relatives from being with their loved ones as they took their last breath on Earth, ban close friends from attending funerals, and forcibly stop concerned relatives from helping young people who were abused by their parents.
But merging the humiliation of Britain’s insane lockdown laws, which Boris has fought privately against, with this laughable show trial is intellectually dishonest and morally wrong.
Matt Hancock (pictured), is the real villain of the Covid-19 era whose cavalier decision led directly to thousands of deaths
The judge, jury and executioners of the Privileges Committee headed by Labour’s Boris hater-in-chief Harriet Harman turned out to be even more of a kangaroo court than I feared possible
As expected, the political establishment, Boris who hates the mainstream broadcast media, wet Tories who love the new anti-democratic regime of Sunak and Hunt, and the Sue Gray crooked blob have swallowed up the circus today.
Kay Burley and Beth Rigby, the covid party girls of Sly News, acted as ringmasters and seemed to abandon any semblance of impartiality as they expressed their delight at witnessing the possible slaughter of their political foe.
“I’m so looking forward to this,” Burley exclaimed as she kicked off her report this morning, happily licking her lips.
Fellow presenter Sarah-Jane Mee gushed to Rigby that “this is the box office we’re building towards today,” as she hopped into the studio.
There was no hint of irony, even though both Burley and Rigby were suspended during the pandemic for breaking the Covid rules they consistently demanded Boris reinforce.
They were part of a long list of sworn enemies of Boris who were given a platform to attack the ex-Prime Minister, including conspiracy theorist Alastair Campbell, who is now publicly questioning whether the ex-Prime Minister himself nearly died in March 2020 of Covid.
The deep state allegiance against Boris is even more sinister than that.
Sue Gray, the so-called impartial officer chosen to lead the investigation into the Downing Street parties, is set to become the chief of staff to the leader of the Labor Party – and Slippery Starmer won’t say when they are due to finish their negotiations started.
Sly News covid party girls Kay Burley (pictured) and Beth Rigby renounced any pretense of impartiality as they were happy to witness the possible slaughter of their political foe
As former interior minister Priti Patel, a staunch ally of Boris, told me last week, this suggests “conspiracy” at the highest possible level.
That’s before you take on the role of nemesis Boris Dominic Cummings, a discredited foe who’s made it his mission on Earth to destroy his former boss.
But in this committee’s attempt to write Boris Johnson’s political epitaph, they fail to realize that they may also be threatening future prime ministers’ ability to speak freely in the House of Commons on matters of national urgency.
In trying to prove that Boris ‘recklessly’ misled the house, even though he believed the advice he was given was correct, there is a dangerous move of the goalposts in terms of what our leaders will be prepared to say in parliament .
That can have a cooling effect.
In the future, why would Rishi Sunak agree to rely on officials to answer pressing questions on matters of national importance, when the Privileges Committee could use every ignorant mistake to further his political career? Instead, we will see that our leaders do not rush into day-to-day problems and hide behind official investigations for weeks or months.
Yesterday I spent hours studying the 52 pages of evidence presented to the committee by Boris.
It was abundantly clear to me that he had not knowingly or recklessly misled Parliament and corrected the report when what he had said in Parliament was found to be wrong.
Trying to prove that Boris ‘recklessly’ misled the house, even though he believed the advice he was given was correct, there has been a dangerous move of the goalposts
But going over the painful three hours and 15 minutes of evidence before the committee today made it clear that MPs were looking for a different conclusion.
They failed.
There was no smoking gun, just a lot of noise around hated lockdown measures designed to tap into the public’s anger at what we all had to endure unnecessarily.
Certainly nothing to prove that Boris went to parliament to deliberately or recklessly mislead the public.
So if the committee passes a guilty verdict, it is imperative that Conservative MPs, even those who support Sunak over Boris, put aside their intra-party rivalries to vote against the result.
If Boris is forced from office in a recall election, I fear that the hounding of politicians by the Westminster establishment will become commonplace.
It must not happen for the good of British democracy.