Dawn Butler has urged people to call on their MP to help stop politicians from lying in the House of Commons.
The Brent Central MP tabled an Early Day Motion calling for MPs to have power over the Ministerial Code, which holds ministers to account and prevents them from lying in Parliament.
“At the moment the prime minister is in charge of the code. So the prime minister decides if the person is lying or not,” she said.
“Think about it, the prime minister can commit a crime of lying and then the prime minister is judge and jury. It makes no sense. It’s not fair and it’s not right.”
Butler now wants constituents to email their MPs to sign the motion, “because if we care about what our job is as an MP, then we should care that our ministers do not lie when they address the Chamber”.
Around 40 MPs have signed so far, and Butler said she aims for at least 300-400 signatures.
Constituents can find out who their MP is at theyworkforyou.com and see a template email at dawnbutler.org.uk.
This is huge! Courageous Labour MP @DawnButlerBrent has just tabled an Early Day Motion to stop Boris Johnson lying in Parliament. Contact your MP now and ask them to confirm they will be backing it! Everyone needs to get behind this!
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) September 7, 2021
Cc @Keir_Starmer pic.twitter.com/fI5TUOxrvh
Kicked out
It comes after, in July, Butler was ordered to leave the Parliament after repeatedly claiming prime minister Boris Johnson has lied to the “House and the country”.
She referred to lawyer Peter Stefanovic’s viral video in which he challenges claims made by Johnson about economic growth, nurses bursaries, NHS investment and more.
“I’m disappointed that the prime minister has not come to the House to correct the record and to correct the fact that he has lied to this House and the country over and over again,” Butler said.
The acting Deputy Speaker has repeatedly asked the MP to “reflect on her words” and “withdraw her remarks”.
But Butler replied: “It’s funny that we get in trouble in this place for calling out the lie rather than the person lying.
“I’ve reflected on my words and somebody needs to tell the truth in this House that the prime minister has lied,” she concluded, before being asked to leave the Commons.
Fact-checking video
Last month, Stefanovic challenged chancellor Rishi Sunak’s claim that the Tories will contribute “50,000 more nurses, 20,000 more police officers and 40 new hospitals” in another video.
The filmmaker slammed the chancellor’s statement on Sky News as “regurgitated unchallenged rubbish” taken from the prime minister.
Stefanovic showed a clip where Boris Johnson was asking his cabinet members to repeat the figures after him, and said “Johnson’s zombie training session clearly made an impact on the chancellor.”
Then, Stefanovic went on to say that the prime minister himself admitted to Sophy Ridge on Sky News that in fact, only 31,000 nurses of the 50,000 pledged in the Tory manifesto have actually been new.
Related: ‘Boris the liar’ trends as Dawn Butler says ‘enough is enough’