Have I Got News For You captain and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop has taken the Tory government to task on the Owen Paterson scandal that has dominated the headlines this week.
Speaking during Friday night’s edition of the panel show, Hislop branded the actions of the government “disgraceful” as they attempted to “cover up the misdeeds of one of their own Tory MPs. and to undermine democracy, transparency and accountability.”
On Wednesday, Tory MPs brought forward an amendment to a motion approved by the Standards Committee that Paterson been suspended and face a possible by-election after he was deemed to have lobbied ministers on behalf of two companies for £100,000-a-year.
The government voted through the amendment which would have seen Paterson avoid the suspension. However, the backlash to this move was so vitriolic that the government immediately u-turned the next morning and by the end of Thursday Paterson had resigned.
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Tearing into the entire debacle, Hislop, after briefly explaining what Paterson had done added: “All his Tory mates started a campaign and the prime minister said ‘oh right, we’re changing the entire system now’. He was going to be suspended for 30 days and they said ‘no, he’s not’ and all the Tory MPs voted it through.
“They should all be ashamed of themselves, it’s absolutely disgraceful.”
essential one-minute Owen Paterson explainer from Ian Hisloppic.twitter.com/WlwIuv9L23
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) November 6, 2021
Continuing he said: “Basically they said: ‘If you continue to criticise us we’re going to change the system.’ It was really quite shocking.
He concluded by hypothesizing why he thinks Boris Johnson whipped the Tories into voting for the amendment: “I think because the parliamentary commissioner for standards had looked into the prime minister’s free holiday in Mustique, so I think it might have been an act of revenge, I can’t prove that but I’m going to say it anyway.”
Hislop’s succinct breakdown of the events of the last few days in UK politics has been widely praised.
Ian Hislop near monologue about #TorySleaze, with no joke, near silence from the audience was something to behold.#HIGNFY
— Lorna (for Indy) MacGillivray Johnston (@Elemjay1) November 6, 2021
Saor Alba #ItsTime 🏴 #IndyRef2 #YesScots @one_indy_clan 🏴 #NationInWaiting https://t.co/avNLhYETzM
Nailed it. https://t.co/BbbR5TjPzd
— Angie (@Angie224474) November 6, 2021
Ian Hislop for Prime Minister! If we replace the Tory Cabinet with this panel of HIGNFY, the country would instantly be a better, safer, happier place.
— lucypascoe1984@gmail.com (@lucypascoe1984) November 6, 2021
@PrivateEyeNews Ian Hislop conveys the events of the last week in politics with perfect clarity, as always. #HIGNFY #TorySleaze #JohnsonMustGo https://t.co/7Kei3mtHrm
— Tom Redfern (@The_Redders) November 6, 2021
Elsewhere, the scandal and why it has generated so much anger was also dragged over coals firstly by LBC’s James O’Brien who believes that the Tories ‘Get Brexit Done’ slogan left a lot of people blindfolded and then by former PM John Major who accused Boris Johnson of “trashing the reputation of parliament.”
