Partygate: Michael Gove defends committee of MPs after Boris Johnson criticised ‘kangaroo courtroom’

Michael Gove has defended the Privileges Committee investigating partygate after Boris Johnson described the group of MPs as a “kangaroo court”.

The committee is about to this week finalise its report into whether or not Mr Johnson intentionally misled parliament over COVID gatherings in Downing Street and at Chequers. Mr Johnson resigned as an MP final week after being despatched a draft of the report and launched stinging criticism of the probe.

Speaking to Sky News on Monday morning, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove stated: “I wouldn’t describe the committee as a kangaroo court. Not at all.”

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He added: “The critical thing I think is it’s a properly constituted committee of the House of Commons with distinguished and experienced MPs on.”

The typically ally, typically enemy of Mr Johnson stated he might want to wait and skim the report earlier than he can judge Mr Johnson and his actions.

The panel of MPs is chaired by Labour’s Harriet Harman and made up of 4 Conservatives, two Labour MPs and one SNP member,

In his letter, Mr Johnson claimed the committee had “wilfully chosen to ignore the truth because from the outset their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons”.

“Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.”

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If the committee finds Mr Johnson did intentionally mislead MPs, they might have advisable Mr Johnson be suspended from the Commons for greater than 10 days.

This would have left the ex-prime minister going through a recall petition, the place his constituents get to decide on if there’s a by-election – though that is all now tutorial because of Mr Johnson’s resignation.

Any suspension would have required a vote by MPs as a complete, and it appears to be like like Mr Johnson would have struggled for help even among the many occasion he was main this time final 12 months.

Mr Johnson stated in his resignation letter that he was “very sad” to be leaving the Commons – “at least for now”.

But some within the Conservative Party discover it unlikely he shall be returning anytime quickly.

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Tobias Ellwood, the Tory MP for Bournemouth East, instructed Sky News: “He won’t be standing as an MP… I don’t think any time soon.

“I imply, how might any affiliation, Conservative affiliation, settle for him after what he is now carried out, given the combat that we’ve to try to win the following common election?”