Starmer claims Tory Partygate video proves Sunak should have stopped Johnson’s honours list.
Keir Starmer claimed this morning that Rishi Sunak was incorrect to authorise a film showing Tory activists, including one granted an OBE in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, celebrating during lockdown.
Sunak said he was following convention by waiving the resignation honor.
Starmer told Today this morning that Sunak was correct in banning Johnson’s list because of his soiled image. He said:
Everyone anticipated the privileges committee would report on the ex-prime minister’s behavior.
Why didn’t Prime Minister Rishi Sunak take Boris Johnson’s tentative list and say, “Thank you very much, I will put that on one side and I’ll come to it and look at it when I know the privileges committee’s findings”?
Byline Times’ Josiah Mortimer believes it’s possible.
Because no prime minister has ever been proven to have repeatedly lied to parliament, regardless of convention. He has mostly left parliament. Never before.
Why didn’t Rishi Sunak respond, “I’ll put your list aside, former prime minister?” I’ll do that after seeing the privileges committee’s report. If the privileges committee decides you lied to parliament, I won’t pass your list.
The Mirror video features OBE recipient Ben Mallet. Shaun Bailey, 2020 Tory London mayor candidate, was at the celebration. Bailey became a peer in Johnson’s resignation honours but quit the party before the video was produced.
After being questioned if Mallet and Bailey may lose their honors, Starmer explained why Sunak should have stopped the list. Starmer told Today that was unlikely.
