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Labour MP defends Commons ejection of Dawn Butler for calling Boris Johnson a liar

24 Jul 2021 2 minute read
Chris Bryant. Official portrait of Chris Bryant – UK Parliament (CC BY 3.0).

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:

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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Chris
Chris
3 years ago

Soooo …. Parliament protects lying then?
What a twisted system.
Free Cymru

defaid
defaid
3 years ago
Reply to  Chris

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 »

GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
3 years ago

Check Bryant’s Wikipedia page. Unsurprisingly he started out Tory.

Suns ine De se ts
Suns ine De se ts
3 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

Always will be.

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
3 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

I think it’s becoming pretty clear by now that Keith’s Labour Party is rapidly morphing into Tory Lite.

Dr John Ball
Dr John Ball
3 years ago

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.

Chris
Chris
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr John Ball

“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)

Dr John Ball
Dr John Ball
3 years ago
Reply to  Chris

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.

Quornby
Quornby
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr John Ball

Sorry to disagree John…… Nothing childish about rejecting servility.

Alan Reilly
Alan Reilly
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr John Ball

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.

defaid
defaid
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr John Ball

I agree. Mrs Saxe-Coburg would have been much more apt.

Richard
Richard
3 years ago
Reply to  defaid

Her married surname is actually Schleswig Holstein Zonderberg Glucksburg.

Alan Reilly
Alan Reilly
3 years ago
Reply to  Richard

Sounds like a cocktail 🤣

Leigh Richards
Leigh Richards
3 years ago

Wouldnt expect anything else from Bryant! Beggars belief people in the rhondda keep voting him in as their MP

Quornby
Quornby
3 years ago
Reply to  Leigh Richards

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.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
3 years ago

Shame on the men letting the women do the fighting…only joking I think…my money is on Red Sonia! not Clark Kent…

Robert G
Robert G
3 years ago

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.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago

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.

Sian
Sian
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

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.

Alan Reilly
Alan Reilly
3 years ago

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! 🤣

Will Jones
Will Jones
3 years ago

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?

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