Boris Johnson: Minister rejects ex-PM's 'kangaroo court' claim

Boris Johnson's most loyal supporters are set to vote against the inquiry report

Boris Johnson's fierce criticisms of the inquiry which found he deliberately misled Parliament have been rejected by Welsh Secretary David TC Davies.

The Privileges Committee report condemned the ex-PM for misleading Parliament over Covid rule-breaking.

Mr Johnson called the inquiry a "kangaroo court" but Mr Davies said the committee had "done the right thing".

Guto Harri, a former aide to the ex-prime minister, said the report "did not look like due process".

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Speaking on the BBC's Question Time programme, cabinet minister and Monmouth Conservative MP Mr Davies, told the audience on Deeside in Flintshire, that the Privileges committee inquiry had been set up by Boris Johnson and "we should respect their findings".

He said: "I have every confidence that the committee were doing the right thing", adding that "I want to make it very clear that I respect the work the committee has done".

Commenting on the claims from Mr Johnson and his supporters that the process was "a kangaroo court", the Conservative MP for Monmouth said: "That is certainly something that I would not support at all".

"The committee members are long standing members of Parliament, very experienced, they went into this in a great deal of detail," he said.

David TC Davies said it is now time to "move on" under Rishi Sunak's leadership

But ex-Boris Johnson aide Guto Harri did not think his former boss had been treated fairly.

Mr Harri said: "If you can deprive people of their livelihood you need to be beyond reproach and the idea that the former leader of the Labour Party [Harriet Harman] can decide essentially on the process and the outcome that drives out a Conservative prime minister of Parliament for me, whether you like Boris or not, does not look like due process".

"I understand why Boris feels slightly cheated by the process".

Ms Harmon was acting Labour leader after Gordon Brown stepped down in 2010 and when his successor, Ed Ed Miliband, quit in 2015.

Former Labour Cabinet minister Lord David Blunkett told the programme "if you lie at the despatch box, you have to go".

"He has the cheek to blame the committee, the Parliament, even his Conservative colleagues. He's only got one person to blame - it's Boris Johnson."

MPs will get the chance to approve or reject the committee's recommendations on Monday.