TOP figures within the SNP have stepped up calls for Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list to be “torn up” – and for the disgraced former prime minister to repay the public money spent on his legal defence.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said the report from the Privileges Committee – which would have recommended Johnson be given a 90-day suspension from the Commons – meant there were actions which now had to be taken.
Flynn said: “I think this report confirms what most of us already knew, that Boris Johnson is a liar and he has repeatedly lied not just to the public but also to the parliament too. This is an extremely serious matter but there’s a few things that need to happen now as well.
“The legal costs, which the public have paid for, need to be recouped from Mr Johnson. The allowance to which he is entitled as a former prime minister, that needs to be removed. And of course his honours list, as a disgraced former prime minister, has to be put in the bin.”
In May, it emerged that taxpayers would be forced to pay a £245,000 bill for Johnson's legal fees as he tried to defend himself over the partygate scandal.
The same month, it was reported that Johnson had spent £3.8 million on a nine-bedroom mansion in Oxfordshire.
But the UK Government claimed it had footed the bill for the former Tory leader's legal fees and there were "no plans" to look to recoup the money.
"The legal costs, which the public have paid for, need to be recouped" The SNP's leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn, says Boris Johnson "repeatedly lied" and has "disgraced the office that he holds" Follow latest https://t.co/BCe7fJ3Dob pic.twitter.com/qZF7DyiYLE
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) June 15, 2023
Flynn's predecessor as SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, echoed the call. He wrote on Twitter: “With the privileges committee having reported, @RishiSunak should show leadership and make sure that the @BorisJohnson resignation honours are revoked.”
He added: “The former PM has gone in disgrace. His tainted honours list must not be allowed to stand.”
And Keith Brown, the SNP’s depute leader, said: “The House of Lords undermines the UK’s claim to be a democracy. Johnson’s (dis)honours list undermines the elected element of the UK Parliament. At the very least Johnson’s list should be torn up.”
Brown also shared comment from Katy Loudon, the SNP’s candidate in any by-election called in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, which said Flynn was “bang on the money”.
“He should be stripped of all and any exPM benefits, and the public should not be liable for his legal costs,” Loudon said.
But the UK Government has insisted that allowing former prime ministers’ resignation honours lists to stand was a “long-standing convention” that Rishi Sunak was not keen to change.
There is no convention governing what should happen in Johnson’s case however, as he is the first prime minister to have been found to have repeatedly lied to parliament.
The former Tory leader resigned as an MP with immediate effect after seeing the draft conclusions of the report late last week.
His ally Nigel Adams also resigned, and Nadine Dorries made a show of saying she would. However, the former culture secretary has since clung on to her parliamentary seat.
Dorries and Adams were both left off Johnson’s honours list when it was published.
At PMQs on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: said: “The truth is for all his tough talk after the event, the Prime Minister did sign off the honours list. That means that those who threw a Downing Street party the night before the late Queen sat alone at her husband’s funeral will now receive awards from the King.
“If he is so tough, why didn’t he block it?”
The Prime Minister replied: “I and the Government followed due process and convention. Prime ministers of both parties have always upheld the convention of non-interference on political honours.
“My predecessors may not have agreed with Labour’s choices of Tom Watson or Shami Chakrabarti, but the same precedent stood then as it does now. And I’d expect a knight like him to understand that.”
Starmer said honours should be for “public service not Tory cronies”, telling the Commons: “Isn’t this this case: He was too weak to block Johnson’s list, and that also means that those who spent their time helping cover up Johnson’s lawbreaking are rewarded by becoming lawmakers for the rest of their lives?”
