DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Tories have to shun this tawdry witch-hunt
A fundamental principle of natural justice is that the accused has the right to be tried without prejudice or partiality.
Like Caesar’s wife, judges have to be above suspicion. If not, faith in the system breaks down. Equally, the prosecuting authority must prove the defendant acted with mens rea – the deliberate intent to commit the offences alleged.
On both counts, the kangaroo court (aka the Commons privileges committee) set up to rule on whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament over Partygate fails miserably.
It may not be a criminal trial but everything about this case screams malice and prejudgment.
A kangaroo court (aka the Commons privileges committee) is set up to rule on whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament over Partygate
To begin with, chairman Harriet Harman has been openly contemptuous of the Prime Minister on social media, saying he had shown ‘complete disregard for the rules’ and his behaviour was ‘unspeakable’.
Ironically, the committee’s standing chairman, Chris Bryant, recused himself because he had been scathing about Mr Johnson, so felt his presence could lead to the ‘imputation of unfairness’. Given her own antecedents, the idea that Miss Harman will be any fairer is simply preposterous.
The committee also includes a former shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn and a Scottish nationalist who retweeted his leader Ian Blackford’s rant about the PM supposedly telling ‘a litany of lies’.
Furthermore, it was originally set to decide whether Mr Johnson had ‘knowingly’ misled Parliament but later removed that word from their remit.
So against all convention, the accused is to be damned even if he inadvertently broke the rules. What a stitch-up!
It’s true that Conservative MPs make up a majority on the committee (though none of them stood by Boris to the end and at least one is known to have voted against him in June’s confidence motion).
If they have any sense of honour, the Tory members will do the right thing and quit this vindictive charade. Enough is enough.
Mr Johnson has already paid the ultimate price for his perceived failings – which were monstrously exaggerated by his enemies.
By carrying on, the Tory members are playing into the hands of spiteful opposition parties and implacable Remainers who want to prolong the agony for political purposes.
If they step aside, the rug will be pulled from under the Boris-haters, who will be left shouting into a malevolent echo chamber.
This isn’t justice, it’s naked vengeance. No self-respecting Conservative should have anything to do with it.
Perils of Don’t Pay
The Daily Mail instinctively agrees that the best way to help families through the cost of living crunch is by taking less money off them in taxes.
But such is the scale of the shock coming down the track that the worst-off in society may need more targeted help to cope with spiralling energy bills – which is why Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss is wise to keep that option open along with tax cuts.
Extremely unwise, however, is the nascent Don’t Pay UK campaign, apparently being promoted by church figures and charities.
Defiant non-payment of bills may seem justified given the obscene profits being made by energy producers, but it is a truly dangerous path – especially for the poorest.
Any credit rating they have would be wiped out by county court judgments for non-payment, leaving them vulnerable to bailiffs and loan sharks.
That would only serve to make a bad situation infinitely worse.
- News that up to four in ten Channel migrants are economic migrants from war-free Albania shows the dire need for our asylum system to be overhauled. The Left continues to sneer at plans for asylum claims to be assessed in Rwanda. So what’s their solution – beyond dismantling our borders completely?
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