Boris Johnson was called out for being a “systematic” liar on BBC Question Time by the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.
Speaking on Wednesday, she was answering questions around the return of Tory ‘sleaze’ after the Conservatives voted to undermine the watchdog which disciplines MPs and let Tory MP Owen Paterson off the hook for breaching lobbying rules.
Public backlash followed and the government quickly u-turned, resulting in Paterson’s resignation – but the whole affair has left people questioning Downing Street’s integrity.
Lucas pointed out: “You can’t just go around changing the rules when you don’t like them and that’s exactly what this prime minister is doing.
“It goes much wider, sadly, than Owen Paterson – this is a prime minister who cares nothing for parliamentary standards or for decency or for the rule of law.
“We’ve seen him doing something similar when he prorogued parliament, when he doesn’t like what parliament was doing over Brexit, he refused to sack Priti Patel over bullying.
“He himself is the biggest problem of all.”
Johnson could soon be under investigation by the standards committee himself over the financing for his Downing Street flat refurbishment, and has previously been investigated after he went on a luxurious holiday at the expense of a Tory donor.
“I’ve tried to find out how to hold the prime minister to account when he lies – something he does repeatedly and let’s be clear, this is something the prime minister does repeatedly and systematically,” Lucas claimed.
“And the trouble is judge, jury and court is all the prime minister.”
Lucas also dismantled any claims that the prime minister was acting with compassion when his government whipped the Tories to support dropping the suspension against Paterson for breaching the rules.
Referring to his flat refurbishment, she said: “I think there’s a school of thought that suggests Boris Johnson was actually thinking about his own skin about this because he knows that the commissioner is likely to be looking into him very soon again.”
She pointed out that he had undermined the discipline process for MPs while he has “bad blood” with the commissioner.
Lucas suggested that Johnson was actually trying to push the commissioner “out of her role in order for him to be able to carry on with his lackadaisical business as usual” by backing the amendment to the disciplines system, rather than just showing his support for his colleague Paterson.