A Labour MP has been forced to withdraw a comment calling Boris Johnson a "liar".
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Brighton, Kemptown, had initially used his slot at prime minister's questions this week to say his constituents thought Johnson was a liar for his part in the cover-up over alleged parties in Downing Street during lockdown.
MPs are forbidden from calling or implying that other MPs are liars by parliamentary convention. This dates back to the days when all MPs were automatically assumed to be honourable ladies and gentlemen.
READ MORE: Met Police now investigating Downing Street parties
Therefore the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, gave Russell-Moyle a ticking off for that first infraction. Russell-Moyle, however, continued, saying he would rather be led by a "lawyer than a liar" while pointing at Johnson.
The quip was a response to Johnson earlier calling Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, a "lawyer, not a leader".
The speaker once again rose to his feet, ordering Russell-Moyle to withdraw the comment, which he did by saying: "That's what my constituents think, not what I think."
Johnson responded by saying the Labour MP "plainly doesn't know what he is talking about".
The prime minister has been accused of lying by people on all sides of the political spectrum. He said in parliament that he had been "assured ... there was no party" and even said "all guidance was followed completely in No 10", even though it has subsequently emerged - indeed, Downing Street has admitted - that Johnson held a birthday party in the cabinet room in June 2020, when indoor socialising was banned in the UK. Many other parties, some of which were reportedly attended by Johnson, have also emerged.
If Johnson is found to have misled parliament, he will come under even more pressure to resign, since the ministerial code - a document that sets out how ministers should behave that is signed by Johnson himself as PM - says any minister who misleads parliament will be expected to resign. Johnson and his spokesperson have said he will resign if he breaks the ministerial code but maintain that he has not broken it.
Johnson has twice been sacked for lying in previous jobs. In 1988, he was sacked from his job as a journalist at the Times for fabricating a quote from his own godfather, the academic Colin Lucas.
Then in 2004, by now a Conservative MP, he was sacked from his role as a shadow arts minister by the then Tory leader Michael Howard for allegedly lying about having an extramarital affair with the journalist Petronella Wyatt.
Johnson has also faced accusations of having misled the Queen by advising her to prorogue parliament in 2019. The prorogation was later found to have been unlawful.
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