Workington MP criticised for 'disturbing' 'witch hunt' comment on Boris Johnson partygate report

Boris Johnson.
Boris Johnson was found to have intentionally misled the house of commons over his knowledge of parties in downing street during COVID-19 lockdowns. Credit: PA

Workington MP Mark Jenkinson has been criticised by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for his comments on the recent report into Boris Johnson's conduct.

The report, published on 15 June, concluded that the former prime minister had intentionally misled the House of Commons when questioned on what he knew about parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The privileges committee today published a supplementary report on their concern about a "coordinated campaign of interference" in their work. The committee says that improper pressure was put on members of the committee by members of parliament throughout the inquiry process.

Mr Jenkinson was among the eight members named by the committee when providing "some of the most disturbing examples of the campaign to interfere with the work of the committee."

The list also included MPs like Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries.

The privileges committee said: "We are concerned at the involvement of Members of both Houses in attempting to influence the outcome of the inquiry. Those Members did not choose to engage through any proper process such as the submission of letters or evidence, but by attacking the members of the Committee.

"Their aim was to influence the outcome of the inquiry, impede the work of the Committee by inducing members to resign from it, discredit the Committee’s conclusions if those conclusions were not what they wanted, and discredit the Committee as a whole."The report named a tweet from Mr Jenkinson from 9 June when he stated: “When the witch hunt has been forgotten, future generations will look back in astonishment.”

In a tweet today, Mr Jenkinson said: "On publication of the previous report I said it had overreached. Prior to publication I had not referred to the committee.

"Yet in another perfect example of gross overreach, the committee use a tweet that did not refer to them and was about the media witch hunt of Boris Johnson."

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