Sunday, March 31, 2019
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove must account for their role in Vote Leave’s law-breaking
So the Sunday papers have caught up with Vote Leave's admission of guilt for law-breaking during the 2016 referendum campaign, and are starting to ask awkward questions.
The key questions of course involves those members (and past members) of Her Majesty's Government who were prominent in that campaign. What exactly did they know? What level of accountability can be applied to them? And does their association with this wrong-doing make them unfit for high office?
The Observer reports that Conservative leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Michael Gove in particular, are facing growing calls to account for this illegal behaviour by the official Vote Leave Brexit campaign.
This is especially so, given Boris' role in trying to deny all wrong doing. The paper says that when it revealed evidence a year ago that Vote Leave had broken spending rules, Johnson attacked the report on Twitter as “utterly ludicrous” and said it had “won … legally”. Now a Johnson adviser is quoted yesterday as saying that the former foreign secretary would not comment on the end of the appeal. Why so coy, Boris?
Gove has previously said the appeal prevented him from commenting on the ruling, but his office did not respond to a request for a comment now the legal process has ended.
Gove and Johnson played key roles in Vote Leave, Gove as co-convener and Johnson as a figurehead for the official Brexit campaign. A series of other senior government or Tory figures also sat on its committee, including Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and the former international development secretary Priti Patel.
Labour MP, David Lammy is absolutely correct when he says: "There are profound questions for our democracy about whether senior cabinet ministers are now above the law." It is time for these senior politicians to answer questions about any involvement they may have had in this wrongdoing.
The key questions of course involves those members (and past members) of Her Majesty's Government who were prominent in that campaign. What exactly did they know? What level of accountability can be applied to them? And does their association with this wrong-doing make them unfit for high office?
The Observer reports that Conservative leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Michael Gove in particular, are facing growing calls to account for this illegal behaviour by the official Vote Leave Brexit campaign.
This is especially so, given Boris' role in trying to deny all wrong doing. The paper says that when it revealed evidence a year ago that Vote Leave had broken spending rules, Johnson attacked the report on Twitter as “utterly ludicrous” and said it had “won … legally”. Now a Johnson adviser is quoted yesterday as saying that the former foreign secretary would not comment on the end of the appeal. Why so coy, Boris?
Gove has previously said the appeal prevented him from commenting on the ruling, but his office did not respond to a request for a comment now the legal process has ended.
Gove and Johnson played key roles in Vote Leave, Gove as co-convener and Johnson as a figurehead for the official Brexit campaign. A series of other senior government or Tory figures also sat on its committee, including Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and the former international development secretary Priti Patel.
Labour MP, David Lammy is absolutely correct when he says: "There are profound questions for our democracy about whether senior cabinet ministers are now above the law." It is time for these senior politicians to answer questions about any involvement they may have had in this wrongdoing.
