DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Now scrap this tainted kangaroo court
The Commons committee investigating if Boris Johnson misled Parliament – intentionally or otherwise – has long been a travesty of justice. Yesterday, it plumbed absurd – and frankly sinister – new depths.
Despite working for ten months, the inquiry has found little that is new. It has barely found a water pistol, let alone a smoking gun.
Yet Harriet Harman’s panel of Boris-hating pygmies published a report effectively condemning the ex-prime minister as guilty, even before he has given evidence.
This perversion of due process would make even a Third World dictator blush.
The committee says it has evidence that ‘strongly suggests’ Covid rule breaches would have been ‘obvious’ to Mr Johnson.
The Commons committee investigating if Boris Johnson misled Parliament – intentionally or otherwise – has long been a travesty of justice
But it has no concrete proof – and such statements would be laughed out of a court of law. That evidence, such as it is, draws heavily on Sue Gray’s politically explosive probe into lockdown-busting parties at No10, which helped to topple Mr Johnson.
Yet the idea of the senior civil servant being the embodiment of impartiality now rings hollow. For she has accepted a job at the heart of Sir Keir Starmer’s team.
It also turns out Labour’s leader boasted of knowing her ‘personally’ and offered her the job ‘months ago’. Was he wooing her while she investigated Boris? He won’t say.
Any fair-minded observer would be concerned that Mr Johnson has been the victim of a Labour-Remainer stitch-up.
It is beyond parody that our political class is spending time and energy obsessing about long-over parties when there is a war in Ukraine and the small boats crisis.
This kangaroo court is tainted. The sooner it is dissolved, the better.
Take back our borders
For all the praise that greeted his Northern Ireland deal, one problem for Rishi Sunak is that it has little electoral benefit. The blunt truth is, most voters simply shrug their shoulders.
That is emphatically not the case when it comes to the alarming rise in illegal migration across the Channel. Many view this as one of the most urgent issues facing the country.
The Prime Minister knows better than anyone that each image of people clambering out of a dinghy on the south coast dents Tory hopes of winning the next election.
So we eagerly await laws – expected to be announced next week – aimed at halting the tide of small boats bringing tens of thousands of migrants from France.
Many view the alarming rise in illegal migration across the Channel as one of the most urgent issues facing the country
Tough powers ensuring no one who arrives illegally can stay will be a disincentive. So will making it harder for failed asylum seekers to abuse human rights and modern slavery laws to avoid deportation.
With UK-EU relations more harmonious thanks to Mr Sunak’s Brexit deal, perhaps president Emmanuel Macron will be more amenable to taking back migrants. That would be a powerful deterrent.
Illegal migration is unfair on those who follow the rules, rewards criminal gangs, risks lives and strains public services.
Unless the PM stops this influx, he risks a backlash as voters blame the Tories for failing to take back control of our borders.
A repulsive smear
We knew Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, had only a tenuous grasp on reality. Now he really has lost the plot.
To smear anyone objecting to his punitive Ultra Low Emission Zone traffic scheme as ‘far-Right’ and ‘Covid deniers’ is disgusting.
Oswald Mosley was far-Right. Ordinary folk with valid concerns about the crippling £12.50-a-day charge, or those questioning its democratic legitimacy, are not.
But then these are increasingly the tactics of the Left. When their arguments collapse, they belittle and dehumanise their opponents in the most repulsive way.
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