'Could spell the end of Boris Johnson’s political career'

MP for Ellesmere Port

Just over six months since he finally left Downing St, the Boris Johnson show rolled back into the centre of Parliamentary life last week with the Privileges Committee hearing following the partygate scandal.The Committee of Privileges is the House of Commons committee is tasked at looking at whether the rules of Parliament have been broken and in this case whether Boris Johnson’s statement that there were no parties in Downing St during covid was a “deliberately misleading statement” and therefore contempt of Parliament. The Committee is chaired by a senior Labour MP, Harriet Harman but does in fact have a Conservative majority on it although all members of the committee are meant to leave their party allegiances at the door.

If they determine that Boris Johnson misled the House of Commons, it will then also consider whether the misleading statement ‘was inadvertent, reckless or intentional’. If it concludes that a misleading statement was intentional or reckless, the committee will consider what sanction to recommend to the Commons and if that sanction is a suspension of 10 days or more then, if the Commons approves it, a by election could be triggered. It is therefore a potentially very serious matter as it could spell the end of Boris Johnson’s political career if he is forced out of Parliament at a by election. What the committee will need to consider is whether his evidence is credible that he sought advice and was told that the leaving parties he attended were in line with the rules at the time. I doubt there are many people, who having seen the photographic evidence, have not already made their mind up about his knowledge and awareness of the rule breaking going on in Downing St. We will still have to wait several months to see what the Committee make of his performance.

Also this week the Government announce a crackdown on anti social behaviour including making the possession of nitrous oxide a criminal offence. Commonly known as “laughing gas” this manifests itself in the shiny metal cannisters that I regularly find on litterpicks and constituents frequently complain about. There are also plans to make people carry out community payback within 48 hours of them causing damage through vandalism which in theory is a good idea but with an overstretched police force already I do wonder how realistic it will be and as we are not one of the pilot areas it may well be some time, if at all, before we see any action locally. Feedback I receive from constituents does indicate that crime and anti social behaviour complaints are on the rise in the constituency so I hope we see further support for the police sooner rather than later.

Commiserations to Cheshire Phoenix after their last second defeat in the BBL final last weekend. Having won the trophy last year though it was a great achievement to reach the final for the second year running and we should be very proud of the whole team and local man Ben Thomas in particular who has done a fantastic job as Head Coach.