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Partygate inquiry could leave Boris in limbo until the autumn

By Jason Groves

BORIS Johnson could be left in political limbo for months because the probe into Partygate may not be published until the summer.

Sources said the Commons privileges committee inquiry into whether the former prime minister lied to Parliament had ‘some way to run’, despite the committee not planning to hold any more evidence sessions.

One said the report could be published as late as July, potentially delaying a vote on Mr Johnson’s future until the autumn. The committee can recommend a long suspension from Parliament, which could trigger a by-election in his Uxbridge and South

Ruislip constituency. Any delay to its findings would leave the threat hanging over him, effectively putting him in limbo. One ally of the ex-PM said the committee would ‘string out’ its deliberations for as long as possible, despite making it clear they believe he is guilty. ‘They have made up their minds but they will take ages,’ the source said. ‘They will string it out because that’s in Labour’s interests.’ A spokesman for Mr Johnson said he ‘did not knowingly or recklessly mislead Parliament’.

THE seven dwarfs sitting in judgment on Boris Johnson — with Hattie Harman doubling up as Snow White — are not expected to deliver their final report until June. Why the hell not, given that they’d all so obviously made up their minds in advance? What’s to consider over the next three months?

In a reversal of Peter Cook’s brilliant parody of the judge’s summing-up to the jury before the acquittal of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe in 1979, on charges that he conspired to have his ex-lover Norman Scott murdered, one could imagine Mrs Justice Harman pulling on her black cap and announcing in stentorian tones at the end of Wednesday’s show trial:

‘Over the past few years, we have heard some pretty extraordinary and frankly wholly unbelievable tissue of farragoes from Mr Boris Johnson, one of the most dishonest and least distinguished politicians ever to rise to high office in this country.

‘We have heard from Mr Johnson, a man who by his own admission is a liar, a humbug, a hypocrite, a vagabond, a loathsome spotted reptile and a self-confessed cakescoffer, chicken-strangler and Brexiteer. We have been forced to listen to the whinings of Mr Johnson, a scrounger, a parasite, a pervert, a worm, a piece of slimy refuse unable to follow the simplest of lockdown rules.

‘We shall now retire, as indeed should I, carefully to consider our verdict of Guilty.’

This wasn’t an independent inquiry, it was a lynch-mob.

OK, so Boris can be economical with the actualité, to use the memorable phrase coined by that other celebrated Conservative swordman Alan Clark, and he’s often been his own worst enemy.

HE MAY have played fast and loose with the rules over the years. Indeed, he may even have been in technical breach of rules he set for the rest of us during lockdown. He put his hands up to breaking social distancing regulations when he appeared before the committee this week.

But he also offered some fairly convincing mitigation, certainly enough for any proper jury of his peers to give him the benefit of reasonable doubt.

What persuaded me was his assertion that if he’d known he was breaking the rules by attending ‘social gatherings’ at No10, why on earth would he allow it all to be recorded by the official Downing Street photographer?

I share the outrage of those who looked at those photos of alleged ‘parties’ in Downing Street while they were prevented from mixing with their own families, or visiting sick and dying relatives in hospitals and care homes. And who wasn’t utterly disgusted by the sight of our dear, late Queen being forced to sit alone and masked at her beloved husband’s funeral?

But can every single member of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee deciding Boris’s fate — hand on heart, so to speak — promise on oath that they never broke the rules, either, however accidentally? Did Hattie never sneak a crafty glass of fairtrade Chablis with colleagues after work? Did Bernard Jenkin ever break the ludicrous ‘rule of six’ by having a few friends round for a meal?

Jeremy Corbyn certainly did on one occasion, without sanction.

We know that Labour leader Keir Starmer enjoyed a beer and biryani bash with staff in Durham.

What was the difference between that and the famous prosecco and birthday cake ‘gathering’ in Downing Street?

Only that Durham Plod decided not to prosecute Starmer, while Scotland Yard issued Boris — and Dishi Rishi — with fixed penalty notices. Whoops, little bit of politics there, as Ben Elton used to say.

At the time, in this column, I asked out loud if then Commissioner of the Met, the now discredited and departed Cressida Dick of Dock Green, could guarantee that no one at the Yard had cracked open a bottle of Glennhoddle in the squad room at the end of a hard day’s fitting people up for ‘hate crimes’? Answer came there none. Same goes for all of us. I can’t promise you that I never committed a technical breach of the rules during the assorted lockdowns. There were so many ludicrous, nitpicking restrictions that most of us lost track of them.

Retrospectively trying to enforce the rules and hand down punishment is a fool’s errand. But that’s exactly what’s happening in Parliament versus Johnson, a farcical pantomime worthy of one of Beachcomber’s more surreal sketches.

But, let’s be honest, the Boris witch-hunt has got nothing to do with the fall-out from Covid. It’s about vengeance.

Britain’s political establishment, like the Deep State in the U.S., resents the fact that an unashamedly populist candidate can appeal to voters over their heads.

That explains both the continuing pursuit of Donald Trump and the determination to destroy Boris for good.

Trump is a busted flush, although he will go down fighting, kicking and screaming. That hasn’t prevented his ‘liberal’ enemies moving heaven and earth not just to stop him seeking the Republican nomination again, but trying to get him locked up.

Boris was hounded from office but the Blob — and resentful politicians on both sides of the House — won’t be content until he is hanged, drawn and quartered with a stake driven through his heart.

That’s why the seven dwarfs are prolonging the agony, vindictively drawing out their verdict to keep Johnson twisting in the wind. And by the time it does land, Parliament could be heading into recess and the final verdict might not be put to a vote of MPs until September at the earliest.

This is madness, and flies in the face of natural justice. The political establishment doesn’t simply want to punish Boris for misleading Parliament, they want to ruin him for good.

They’ve even tilted the playing field so that he can be found guilty of ‘recklessly’ — not deliberately — misleading the House. Then he can be suspended and forced to face a by-election at a time when the Conservatives are deeply unpopular. It stinks.

Of course, Johnson’s never been forgiven for Brexit. But why Bernard Jenkin, one of the original Tory Eurosceptic Leave brigade, wants him taken out and shot is beyond me. Jealousy, maybe.

AS THEY didn’t say in The Godfather, tell Boris it’s not business, it’s personal. The country has moved on from Covid and so should the Westminster Bubble. As we know from the Matt Hancock WhatsApp dump, no one at the top had a clue what they were doing from the off.

Decisions were often made because of political calculation, not because of what was in our best interests. It’s how we ended up with excessive restrictions and heavy-handed enforcement.

Surely now is the time for a bit of truth and reconciliation, to draw a line under the past few years.

Let’s agree that the country suffered a collective nervous breakdown, from which we haven’t fully recovered. The plot was lost, primarily by the politicians and the police. The unmasked were treated like terrorists, neighbours were grassed up for trivial ‘offences’, gyms and pubs were raided by coppers measuring pizza slices and inspecting scotch eggs. It was not our finest hour. During Covid, 119,000 people were prosecuted for everything from sunbathing in deserted parks to drinking tea in the countryside. All of those fixed penalties should be refunded and Covid-related criminal records expunged.

If we had to let terrorists out of jail to secure the Northern Ireland Long Good Friday Agreement, surely we can rip up a few convictions for holding illegal barbecues.

Parliament could start by ending this deranged witch-hunt against Boris Johnson, standing down Hattie Harman’s seven dwarfs and putting them back to work on addressing the real problems which confront us, not pursuing a pointless politically motivated vendetta.

Hi-ho!

Snp Civil War

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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