Labour MP defends Commons ejection of Dawn Butler for calling Boris Johnson a liar
Welsh Labour MP Chris Bryant has defended the expulsion of fellow party member Dawn Butler from the House of Commons debating chamber.
Butler, a fellow Labour MP, was ordered to leave after refusing to withdraw a remark during a debate on the pandemic response that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had, “lied to the House and the country over and over again”.
Chris Bryant took to Twitter to defend the decision, saying that Acting Deputy Speaker Judith Cummins had “no choice”.
He states: “To be clear, there are circumstances when you can accuse another member of lying, being corrupt or whatever you want in parliament.
“Otherwise we would never be able to suspend or expel a member. It just has to be in a debate on a specific motion on the conduct of the member.
“That’s why my colleague @JudithCummins had no choice but to ask my other colleague @DawnButlerBrent to apologise or withdraw.
“What is not in doubt in my mind is that the PM regularly misleads parliament and never corrects the record. He lies. And it’s time we all debated it.”
Deceit
House of Commons rules on unparliamentary language forbid MPs from accusing fellow politicians of any kind of deliberate deceit.
Past words that have also been deemed ‘unparliamentary’ include blackguard, coward, git, guttersnipe, hooligan, rat, swine, stoolpigeon and traitor.
The response of Chris Bryant contrasted with that of another Rhondda politician, with former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood fully supportive of Dawn Butler’s actions:
Well done @DawnButlerBrent for saying it like it is. ✊
He has told lies. Big ones too.
When you get thrown out of the chamber for speaking the truth, you are winning. Keep going. 💪
— Leanne Wood 💚💛 (@LeanneWood) July 22, 2021
Being thrown out of a national chamber is something that Leanne Wood has personal experience of.
As a Plaid Cymru AS, she was ordered to leave the Senedd in 2004 by Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas after having referred to the Queen as ‘Mrs Windsor’.
Dawn Butler is the 14th Westminster MP to have been dismissed from the House of Commons chamber since records first started to be kept in 1992.
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Soooo …. Parliament protects lying then?
What a twisted system.
Free Cymru
Not quite. Westminster’s rules are there to ensure that business doesn’t get bogged down in name-calling or insults, rather like having to direct remarks to the speaker and not address fellow members directly. The rules don’t work at all well: the immature and self-serving will always find a way to bend them. I found Dawn Butler’s honesty in stating what the whole world knows perfectly well to be a very pleasant change from the usual mealy-mouthed bollox spoken by most of her colleagues. If Mrs Windsor had more than half an inbred brain cell, she’d have sacked most of them… Read more »
Check Bryant’s Wikipedia page. Unsurprisingly he started out Tory.
Always will be.
I think it’s becoming pretty clear by now that Keith’s Labour Party is rapidly morphing into Tory Lite.
Dawn Butler’s language might have been inappropriate by HoC standards, perhaps she might have used Churchill’s better phrase “terminalogical inexactitudes,.” a phrase with which I’m sure ex tory Bryant would be familiar.
However, comparing her comments on such a serious matter with Leanne Wood’s childish Mrs Windsor stunt diminishes the importance and indeed relevance of her remark.
“Childish Mrs Windsor stunt” . Why is this childish? Just a fair rhetorical device to express no particular respect for the institution of royalty (which essentially is only descent from a particular land thieving mercenary)
I have no time for the royalist parasites either. However, the point I was making was simply this – Dawn Butler called out an incompetent government that has lied all the way through the pandemic and such lies may well have cost lives.
Leanne’s remark was made in no such circumstances but it did get her name in the paper.
Sorry to disagree John…… Nothing childish about rejecting servility.
Personally I prefer to call Mrs. Windsor a parasite but I can understand why Leanne wanted to be more respectful when talking about a random old woman.
I agree. Mrs Saxe-Coburg would have been much more apt.
Her married surname is actually Schleswig Holstein Zonderberg Glucksburg.
Sounds like a cocktail 🤣
Wouldnt expect anything else from Bryant! Beggars belief people in the rhondda keep voting him in as their MP
Bryant is a sycophant of the worst kind so no surprise that people who don’t follow politics closely might think of him as electable when he grovels on their doorstep.
Shame on the men letting the women do the fighting…only joking I think…my money is on Red Sonia! not Clark Kent…
Is this news? And do we have to see a picture of his Cymraegphobic, expenses fiddling, smug red tory with his smarmy politician’s smile? He makes my stomach heave.
I think it is a very sad day for democracy when a decent and honourable politician is ordered out of the House for calling out corruption.
What kind of democratic institution tries to silence accountability? Certainly not one which deserves respect!
My compliments to Dawn Butler for her courage.
Surprised only 14 people been ejected and this one for stating the truth. Surely honesty is something to be commended. As for Bryant he and other UK Labour MPs should be concentrating on challenging the Tories not continually propping them up.
Dennis Skinner is a legend for a similar event!
Skinner in the House of Commons: “half the Tories are thieves”.
Speaker: “you will retract that statement, Mr. Skinner”.
Skinner: “ok, half the Tories aren’t thieves”.
Brilliant! 🤣
Is this the guy who rents out the flat in London that he bought with his parliamentary expenses and then rents another flat, claiming expenses to cover the rent?Pots and kettles?