Commons Select Committee of Privileges

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The Commons Select Committee of Privileges is a Committee appointed by the House of Commons to consider specific matters relating to privileges referred to it by the House.

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It came into being on 7 January 2013 as one half of the replacements for the Committee on Standards and Privileges. The latter committee was divided into the Committee on Standards and Committee of Privileges in order that the Standards Committee might employ lay members.

Membership

As of November 2023, the members of the committee were as follows: [1] [2]

MemberPartyConstituency
The Rt Hon Harriet Harman KC MP (Chair) Labour Camberwell and Peckham
Philip Dunne MP Conservative Ludlow
Alberto Costa MP Conservative South Leicestershire
Allan Dorans MP Scottish National Party Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock
Michael Ellis MP Conservative Northampton North
Yvonne Fovargue MP Labour Makerfield
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP Conservative Harwich and North Essex

Investigation into Boris Johnson

The Privileges Committee of the House of Commons had a parliamentary injury over the investigation into Boris Johnson's breach of lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerning four specific assertions made by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions about "the legality of activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations", events commonly referred to as Partygate. The investigation is concerned with whether Johnson misled the Commons when he made these statements.

The Committee published their final report on 15 June. [3] Johnson resigned over the investigation after having been sent a draft copy of the committee's report. The Committee had voted on the final report text and unanimously supported it. They concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled the House, a contempt of Parliament. They said that, had he still been an MP, they would have recommended a 90 day suspension. [3] If that had happened, it would have been the second longest suspension since 1949. [4] [5] [3] [6]

The Committee concluded that Johnson's actions were "more serious" because they were committed when he was Prime Minister. They noted that there was no precedent for a PM being found to have deliberately misled Parliament. [7] The report stated that Johnson tried to "rewrite the meaning" of COVID rules "to fit his own evidence" for example that "a leaving gathering or a gathering to boost morale was a lawful reason to hold a gathering." [8] They concluded he was guilty of further contempts of Parliament and that he breached confidentiality requirements by criticising the Committee's provisional findings when he resigned. They said he was complicit in a "campaign of abuse" against those investigating him. [3]

The Commons debated the report on 19 June 2023. Labour forced a vote and the Commons voted 354 to 7 in support, with a large number of abstentions. This was an absolute majority of the Commons. 118 Conservative MPs, including 15 ministers, voted for the report and 225 abstained. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had earlier said he had other commitments, and did not attend the debate and refused to say how he would have voted.

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References

  1. ↑ "Membership - Committee of Privileges". UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  2. ↑ "Business without Debate Volume 742: debated on Monday 4 December 2023". hansard.parliament.uk/. UK Hansard. 4 December 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2023. That Andy Carter and Sir Charles Walker be discharged from the Committee of Privileges and Philip Dunne and Sir Michael Ellis be added.—(Marcus Jones.)
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Boris Johnson report latest: Covid bereaved seek ex-PM apology after Partygate report". BBC News. 15 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Magazine, Perspective (15 June 2023). "What happens now the Privileges Committee's report on Johnson has been released?".
  5. ↑ Balls, Katy (15 June 2023). "Boris Johnson's fall from grace has given Rishi Sunak an opportunity". inews.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Sparrow, Andrew (15 June 2023). "Boris Johnson would face 90-day suspension if he were still MP, says privileges committee – as it happened". The Guardian– via www.theguardian.com.
  7. ↑ Marquis, Josh Salisbury, Bill McLoughlin, Claudia (15 June 2023). "Tory civil war tensions as MPs given vote on Boris Partygate report". Evening Standard.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Castle, Stephen (15 June 2023). "Boris Johnson Misled Parliament Over Covid Lockdown Parties, Report Says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2023.


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