Boris Johnson has been declared a liar in the House of Commons by Ian Blackford without any consequences for SNP leader.
Blackford, who has previously been ejected from the chamber for using the description of the Prime Minister, was not challenged by the Speaker during a debate on whether Boris Johnson misled MPs.
With the government benches half-empty after an attempt to shore up the Prime Minister collapsed, the SNP leader tore into Johnson’s character and reputation.
He said: “There is one reason why it is so important that this motion is debated and passed today. Because at the very heart of this scandal - there is one thing that needs to be said, one thing that needs to be heard and it’s the very reason that we all need to act.
"And the reason is this. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a liar.”
Blackford added: “I genuinely don’t say that lightly and I don’t say it loosely. I honestly believe that it is right that we are slow to use that word.
"But I equally believe that it is right that we should never be slow to say it – and to call it out - when it is so, so obviously true.
"Because members across this House know it to be true and the public have long since known that it’s true.”
Blackford said the evidence against Johnson amounted to an “an open and shut case”,
He said: “This is it. Last December, the Prime Minister came to this House and denied that there were any parties in 10 Downing Street during the long Covid lockdowns.
“Typically and tellingly - he hid behind his staff in saying it. He told us that he was given firm reassurance that no parties had happened, and that no rules were broken.
“Every member of this parliament witnessed it.The public saw it happen with their own eyes and to this very day, it is still on the record of this House.
“But now we know the truth.And that truth contains no ifs, no buts and no maybes. The House was misled and so were the public – and we were all misled deliberately.”
The Tory benches were earlier silenced by a powerful speech from Keir Starmer, who reminded them that the principles of parliamentary standards and honesty were at stake.
The Labour leader warned that not supporting proposals to refer the Prime Minister to a parliamentary investigation over partygate would mean MPs were complicit in allowing standards to slip.
Starmer said: “If we don’t pass this motion, if we don’t take this opportunity to restate the principles, then we are all complicit in allowing these standards to slip. We are all complicit in allowing the public to think we are all the same, nobody tells the truth, that there are alternative sets of facts.”
He added: “The conventions and the traditions that we are debating this morning are not an accident. They have been handed down to us as the tools that protect Britain from malaise, from extremism and from decline.
“And this is important because the case against the Prime Minister is that he has abused those tools. That is the case against him, that he has used them to protect himself rather than our democracy. That he has turned them against all that they are supposed to support.”
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