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Boris Johnson earned nearly £1m in a month to bring his earnings this parliament up to £2.3m. His latest update to the MPs’ register of interests showed the former prime minister received £510,000 as an advance on his upcoming book.
Mr Johnson also earned £200,892.86 for a speech to Aditya Birla Management, an Indian conglomerate, and £246,406.57 from Bloomberg Singapore for a speech he made in the city. He was paid £3,000 for an article he wrote for The Spectator magazine, which he said took an hour to write.
The additions brought his total earnings from 14 December 2022 to 13 January 2023 to £960,298. All of this whilst still a sitting MP for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, where the right honorable Member of Parliament Johnson has been ‘out of office’ for a good few months now despite still receiving his MP salary and claiming MP’s expenses.
On 21 April 2022, the House of Commons passed a motion tabled by the leader of the Labour Party, calling for the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, to be investigated by the Commons Privileges Committee for having potentially misled parliament over ‘partygate’ allegations.
What is Boris Johnson being investigated for?
The Privileges Committee is investigating whether Boris Johnson may have misled parliament in statements that he made in the Commons about alleged breaches of lockdown rules in Downing Street and, if so, whether this may have constituted a contempt of parliament.
According to the specific terms of the motion passed by the Commons authorising the committee’s inquiry, the committee is investigating whether:
- The Commons was misled
- If the Commons was misled, whether that constituted a contempt of parliament (in other words, whether the functioning of the Commons was impeded by this)
- If the Commons was misled, how serious was the potential contempt.
In an interim report published by the Privileges Committee in March 2023, setting out the issues it wishes to raise with Johnson, the committee further stated that it is investigating whether, if a statement made by Johnson to the Commons is found to have been misleading, it was “inadvertent, reckless, or intentional.” This may include examining “how quickly and comprehensively any misleading statement to the House was corrected.”
Who is the investigation being conducted by?
The investigation is being conducted by the Commons Privileges Committee. This is a cross-party committee tasked with the investigation of potential contempt’s of parliament and breaches of privilege.
This means that the investigation is a parliamentary one operating according to the rules and conventions of the UK Parliament. It is separate from the legal process, because only parliamentarians can make decisions about issues of parliamentary privilege.
August 2022, Johnson informed the committee that he had no relevant material in his possession related to their request for evidence. January 2023, Johnson disclosed 46 WhatsApp messages to the committee in response to “a direct and specific request.” The committee commenced taking ‘oral evidence‘ from Johnson, 22 March 2023 in a public hearing.
A former prime minister, effectively, on trial, for what was left of his reputation. A guilty verdict from the privileges committee and a suspension from parliament could, effectively, end Boris Johnson’s political career.
If found guilty, Any sanctions recommended by the committee would have to be approved by a vote of the whole Commons, which is expected to be a free vote. As Boris Johnson no longer holds ministerial office, the only sanctions that the committee could recommend relate to his status as an MP.
X prime minister Johnson, a proven liar, blew an 80 seat majority and an almost guaranteed three terms in office. Now sent to roam the world as a washed-up end of the pier entertainer, giving the same over-priced speech to people he doesn’t know and will never see again. An extremely, well paid but, pointless existence for Johnson, a narcissist hooked on constant attention.
22/3/23 – This was Johnson at his worst. Angry, fidgety, arrogant (guilty)? His contempt for the committee evident in almost every sentence. Then it was probably always going to be this way. Johnson seldom looks good under pressure.
This is a trial about honesty.
Clearly not Johnson’s strong point. Aided by a capitalist political agender, fuel by a partisan media, Johnson’s rise to power has been rapid, despite him being a proven serial liar. Up until partygate the media (hence the public) indulged his lies. They were ‘so brazen’, ‘so shameless’, they made people laugh. Now it has all turned to shit, we are sick to death with politicians lying and fighting like rats in a sack while the country burns.
During Covid, Johnson crossed a line.
While the vast majority obeyed the rules and guidelines, Johnson, true to his privilege, entitled, upbringing felt free to ‘interpret them more loosely’. And then lie about it. Always the lies. Though it wasn’t the lies alone that did for him. It was the hypocrisy also. People died alone while he and the rest of Number 10 partied. Always the lies, though. So it was no surprise that Johnson doubled down, a tactic that has enabled and empowered him and his lies throughout his life.
The first ‘committee’ session 22nd March about lying to parliament was dominated by Johnsons testimony (again) lying to parliament. Almost meta. Lying about lying about lying.
Johnson took the oath on the King James bible. Amazingly the bible survived contact with Boris’s hand. It must have come across many liars in its time. Johnson went off on a rant, only to be interrupted by a division bell reminding him to vote against Rishi Sunak’s Windsor framework. On his return, he mounted the first outline of his defence.
‘He was too stupid to lie’. If he had a fault it was that ‘he was too honest’. There again he might also be too stupid to stop himself lying. After all, if everyone knows you’re lying then no one is being misled?
Johnson warmed to his stupidity theme. He genuinely? believes that no rules had been broken because ‘no one had told him any rules were being broken’? ‘Don’t blame me, blame stupid’. He wasn’t responsible for his own actions. Besides which, he had no idea what the rules and guidance were because he hadn’t yet worked out who had been prime minister at the time!
He wasn’t finished. ‘You can’t trust the Sue Gray report as it was clearly biased’. Johnson started slagging off the committee for being a ‘kangaroo court’. The diminishing group of Tory MPs, Johnsons puppet masters, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Fabricant and Scott Benton, that remain loyal to the Johnson flame were in attendance, sitting near the back, nodding in agreement. After all, it was disgraceful that Johnson should be tried by a committee that had decided on its verdict already. ‘Especially when he was clearly innocent’!.
Johnson introduced the concept of ‘personal drift’. Downing Street was a special case. ‘We’ started off meaning to socially distance but somehow mysteriously ended up ‘throwing up in bins, falling into flowerbeds or having sex with random strangers’. Apparently, ‘Downing Street’ normal.
We are meant to believe, that it had never occurred to the Oxbridge, educated, Prime Minister Johnson that any of the parties ‘that weren’t parties’ might have been ‘against the rules’ because whenever he attended them he was afflicted by sudden onset deafness, and blindness. He literally did not ‘see anything’ that caused him the slightest misgivings. What was wrong with inviting 200 people to a party? Or having them crammed indoors? This was just a normal work event in Downing Street. What is the problem here? People had been offered hand sanitiser.
When you (eventually) realised the rules had been broken to the tune of 126 Fixed Penalty Notices? ‘Why didn’t you correct the record?’, said the committee. Johnson lost it. He said angrily, ‘no rules had been broken, none of his advisers had told him the rules had been broken and because he was too stupid to come to that conclusion on his own’.
He forgot to mention that his advisers had been hand-picked by him to accommodate his untruths. Things became positively surreal. Johnson was rambling incoherently. Committee Chair, Harman brought the session to a close.
The following Sunday, 26/3/23, Michael Gove, another Johnson empoweree and puppet master, interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg live on BBC TV, was asked if, ‘he had believed Johnson’s recent privileges committee account’, ‘yes’, Gove replied, However, live TV, his eyes said the opposite.
Thanks For Reading
Peace
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/privileges-committee-investigation-boris-johnson
Dying to Live 