Priti Patel attacks MPs who want to put Boris Johnson to the test over Partygate

Peiti Patel has questioned the objectivity of MPs who will grill Boris Johnson via Partygate next week – because almost everyone has previously criticized him.

The former home secretary warned of a “culture of collusion” and claimed the probe, which has been branded a witch hunt by allies of the ex-prime minister, will damage democracy.

Her comments came as an audit by the Daily Mail found members of the seven-member Privileges Committee have made more than 20 negative remarks about the former prime minister in interviews and online.

Labor leader Harriet Harman has previously said that Mr Johnson’s acceptance of a police fine for breaching Covid laws means he admits to having misled the Commons – the very issue their inquiry based on the to examine evidence.

Even Conservatives on the committee that will finally hold its televised hearing with Mr Johnson on Wednesday accused him of “humiliating” behavior towards Partygate.

The former home secretary warned of a “culture of collusion” and claimed the probe, which has been branded a witch hunt by allies of the ex-prime minister, will damage democracy

Mr Johnson’s longtime ally, Miss Patel, said the Partygate Inquiry cast “our democracy in a very, very bad light”.

“How can a handful of Members of Parliament and the Committee really be so objective given some of the individual comments that have been made?

“I don’t want to name names but it’s a fact,” she told GB News. “The lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, I think quite frankly there’s a culture of collusion at play here.”

The committee’s usual chairman, Labour’s Chris Bryant, resigned from the inquiry when it was launched last April for repeatedly branding Mr Johnson a liar.

But his successor, former New Labor Secretary Miss Harman, was just as scathing.

On the day Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak were fined by police for attending a brief birthday celebration in the cabinet room, she wrote on Twitter: “PM & CX [Chancellor of the Exchequer] total disregard for rules vital to protecting the health of others. unspeakable. Shameful.’

In another tweet, she appeared to be pre-judging the case she is now in charge of, writing: “When the PM and CX admit their guilt and accept the police’s right to break the rules, they also admit that they have deceived the House of Commons. Or will they challenge?’

An audit by the Daily Mail found that members of the seven-member Privileges Committee have made more than 20 negative remarks about the former prime minister in interviews and online

The other Labor MP on the committee, Yvonne Fovargue, wrote online ahead of the 2019 election: “Boris Johnson tells shameful lies. Here are just ten of them.”

The only SNP member on the committee, Allan Dorans, was once a Metropolitan Police officer who fined Mr Johnson.

In a newsletter, he wrote that people in his constituency were “understandably angry that, while following Covid rules and making personal sacrifices, Boris Johnson broke them by throwing illegal Downing Street parties”.

One of the four Tories on the committee, Andy Carter, said in July when Mr Johnson announced his resignation: “I think that’s the right thing to do and it’s in the best interest of the nation.”

Alberto Costa, another Conservative in the inquiry, made a series of scathing remarks about Mr Johnson’s government as the leadership contest began last summer.

The senior Tory on the committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin, reportedly once said it would be a “disaster” if Mr Johnson joined the Leave campaign ahead of the Brexit vote and called him “dishonest”.

And the last member of the committee, Sir Charles Walker, said back in February that he would “applaud” if the prime minister resigned.

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt said the committee must be allowed to continue its work “without fear or favour”.

A spokesman for the committee said: “The members of the Privileges Committee are Members of Parliament who have been appointed to that role by the House of Representatives.

“The decision to conduct this inquiry was not made by the Privileges Committee but by the House of Commons as a whole.”

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk