An ally of Boris Johnson has been labelled “crackers” for suggesting the devastating report that could end the former prime minister’s political career is “revenge for Brexit”.
On Thursday, the privileges committee of MPs found Johnson deliberately misled parliament over partygate.
It recommended a 90-day suspension for the ex-prime minister, which he will escape after resigning as an MP, and said he should not receive a pass granting access to parliament which is normally given to former members.
MPs are expected to have a free vote on the proposed sanctions.
On the BBC’s Politics Live soon after the report was published, Lord Stewart Jackson, a former Conservative MP, echoed Johnson’s words by describing the process as “a sham court” and “a kangaroo court”, and said the MPs had conducted a “quasi-judicial process”.
He added: “And there are people there who were out to get him, and what this is effectively is revenge for Brexit dressed up as a judicial process.”
After Jackson insisted the majority of parliament was “hostile to his position on Brexit”, he faced pushback from Ellie Mae O’Hagan from the Good Law Project, which has launched a number of legal challenges against the government.
She said: “I’m sorry, I really don’t like being rude to fellow guests. But you sound crackers ... the things you are saying are just crackers ... it as like the idea that this is about Brexit, the idea that Britain is now a banana republic ...”
You can watch the full exchange below.
Other Johnson loyalists have taken to the airways to defend Johnson.
Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith told the BBC that the report was “vindictive, spiteful and an over-each”, adding: “90 days and taking their pass off them is the equivalent of putting somebody in the stocks and touring them round the country.”
Former Cabinet minister Simon Clarke was also among Johnson’s allies to indicate they would vote against the report, saying “this punishment is absolutely extraordinary to the point of sheer vindictiveness”.
Johnson was said to have deliberately misled MPs with his partygate denials and accused of being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation, with the former prime minister hitting out at the “deranged conclusion”.