IAN Blackford was kicked out of the Commons following Boris Johnson’s statement on Sue Gray’s report after accusing the Prime Minister of misleading the House and being untruthful.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford found himself in a tense back-and-forth with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle after making the statement.
When he refused to withdraw his comments, Lindsay Hoyle announced he would be removing the SNP MP from the Chamber – but Blackford had already left before he could finish the process.
READ MORE: Here are the 12 lockdown parties at Number 10 and Whitehall under police investigation
Blackford had heavily criticised the findings of the Sue Gray report, branding it a “fact-finding exercise with no facts”.
He pointed out that Johnson told the House all guidance was followed, and he believed he’d been at a work event. “Nobody believed him then and nobody believes you now Prime Minister … he has wilfully misled parliament.”
Initially, Hoyle asked Blackford to confirm he had withdrawn claims that the Prime Minister had misled the House.
Blackford replied: “That the Prime Minister may have inadvertently misled the House.”
Hoyle countered: “To help me help the House, you’ve withdrawn your earlier comment and replaced it with inadvertently?”
Blackford said: “It’s not my fault if the Prime Minister can’t be trusted to tell the truth.”
READ MORE: Boris Johnson under criminal investigation as he gives statement to MPs on Sue Gray report
Amid raucous shouting from the Tory benches, the Speaker said: “Under the power given to me by standing order number 43 I order the honourable member to withdraw immediately from the House.”
Blackford walked out the chamber before the Speaker had finished, with Sir Lindsay noting: “It’s all right, we don’t need to bother.”
Afterwards, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “The #Gray report may be heavily constrained but it is nevertheless excoriating of Boris Johnson.
“He is guilty of serial failures of leadership & judgment (& has clearly misled parliament).
“If the Tories allow him to continue as PM, they will all be complicit.”
And Blackford commented: "This is what truth to power looks like at Westminster. A liar is allowed to keep his place- I am forced to leave for telling the truth. He misled the house, he must go. Tories must look themselves in the mirror and ask if they can allow this to go on much longer? Remove him now."
In her report, Sue Gray criticised “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021.
But Johnson has repeatedly refused to rule out calls, including from senior Tory MPs, to publish the full unredacted report from the senior civil servant after she conceded she had to pare it back while the Metropolitan Police investigate.
The dozen events being looked at by officers include a “gathering in the No 10 Downing Street flat” on November 13 2020, the night Johnson’s former aides Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain left their roles.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded Johnson publish a full Gray inquiry in the future, as he said the British people believe the Prime Minister should “do the decent thing and resign” but will not because he is “a man without shame”.
Johnson insisted he was “making changes” to Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead No 10.
The Prime Minister did not directly respond to Starmer's call to publish the Gray inquiry “in full when it is available”.
During a chaotic debate, former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told Johnson he “no longer enjoys my support”.
It was the first major signal that the disquiet among the Tory backbenchers was swelling, with the Prime Minister facing the threat of a vote of no confidence.
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