SENIOR Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that MPs deal with matters of "opinion" rather than matters of truth in Commons debates.
The Leader of the House was responding to a call from SNP MP Pete Wishart about the "veracity and truthfulness" of statements made in the Commons.
Wishart said: "Probably of all the things that irks and frustrates our constituents just now is when a member says or claims something that is manifestly untrue and there is no way to have this challenged and addressed in this House."
He added that when an MP does lie they are likely to face the wrath of the speaker, referencing SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford being kicked out of the chamber for saying that Boris Johnson misled Parliament on Monday.
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Wishart mentioned that the parliamentary code of conduct - Erskine May - was "written before the days of the internet, of fact-checkers and this current Prime Minister".
He asked Rees-Mogg, who is in charge of scheduling debates in the Commons, to set a general debate on addressing untrue statements in the House saying that allowing MPs being allowed to say anything regardless of its relationship with the truth "could only have a corrosive effect" on UK democracy.
Rees-Mogg responded: "I think the honourable gentleman takes the view that anything that's said which he disagrees with is untrue and that's not right.
"That is why we have the forms of debate that we have. Because when people hold views strongly, and somebody else stands up and thinks the other thing they say that's not true. But it's not a matter of truth, it's a matter of opinion, which is what we discuss in this house.
"It's not a matter of fact-checking. It's a matter of I think X the honourable gentleman things Y and both of them are views that people are entitled to hold."
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The Leader of the House said that the SNP constantly doubt "the good faith of the people who they oppose" saying that was "quite wrong".
"This is the corrosive element of public life," Rees-Mogg said. "It is the doubting the faith and honesty of your opponents. I disagree with a great deal of what he said by the side of opposites. But I do not question the honesty and the integrity of what they say. I questioned the effectiveness of what they do."
Wishart also called for a full day's debate on all the issues raised in the Sue Gray partygate report, an update of which was published on Monday ahead of the full release pending results of a Metropolitan Police investigation into 12 of the 16 events highlighted.
Rees-Mogg said that the Prime Minister was answering questions for two hours on Monday and that the full report would be published when the Met had completed its work.
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