Instead of apologising to the Commons for his unlawful attempt to suspend Parliamentary business, Boris return in full Trump mode.
During questions to him, one female Labour MP asked that he stop using incendary phrases like “traitor” and “surrender” about his Brexit opponents. Along with many other MPs, she had been getting tweets directly threatening her with violence. Instead of moderating his language, he doubled down.
The prime minister was repeatedly asked by MPs to tone down his “inflammatory” language which they said was fuelling abuse and death threats against parliamentarians. But Mr Johnson dismissed this as “humbug”.
He also rebuffed fears voiced by friends of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox after he drew criticism for referring to a law banning a no-deal Brexit as "the Surrender Act” and claiming that parliament had "betrayed" Leave voters.
He repeatedly used the phrases as the Commons resumed following the Supreme Court ruling that the prime minister’s decision to suspend parliament was unlawful.
The threat of danger is real. Jo Cox was a Labour MP shot and stabbed several times by a man shouting “Britain First”, while she was campaigning for Remain in the Brexit referendum. The murderer was convicted and is serving whole life tarriff, in other words he will never leave prison. (I have wiped his name from this Wikipedia extract as he deserves no publicity, no credit and no admiration from his fellow right-wing terrorists.)
(He) had links to British and American far-right political groups including the neo-fascist National Front (NF), the United States-based neo-Nazi organization National Vanguard (the successor to the defunct National Alliance) and the English Defence League (EDL); he had attended far-right gatherings and purchased publications from the aforementioned National Vanguard and other outlets,[1][23][24][25] to some of which he had sent letters and expressed support for South African apartheid.[26][27][1]In his home were found Nazi regalia, far-right books,[21][28][28] and information on the construction of bombs.[1][25] He had searched the internet for information about the British National Party (BNP), South African apartheid, the Ku Klux Klan, prominent Jewish people, matricide,[21][28] white supremacism/nationalism, Nazism/Nazi Party, SS/Waffen SS, Israel, mass shootings, serial killers, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., William Hague, Ian Gow (another assassinated MP),[1] and Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik (about whose case he collected newspaper clippings). He also owned Nazi iconography and books and films related to the Nazis.[29] A police official described (him) as a "loner in the truest sense of the word ... who never held down a job, never had a girlfriend [and] never [had] any friends".[1] The Guardian said that he "appears to have fantasised about killing a 'collaborator' for more than 17 years, drawing inspiration from" David Copeland
That is a profile all too familiar.
Boris then caused uproar by responding to the appeal with the outrageous statement that the best way to honour Jo Cox was to “pass Brexit”. One of his own Cabinet ministers later tweeted.
Dominic Grieve, one of the 21 purged from the Conservative benches for voting against Boris, was even more forthright in an interview with Robert Peston (one of the biggest political journalist on TV).
For those of you who have not watched the video, it ends with Grieve paraphrasing Boris’s comments as “do what I say or you will be getting death threats”.
Tomorrow, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House, will ask the Commons for a recess until the middle of next week. This is the business for Thursday.
The debate looks like a further attempt to frame the current dispute as “the people vs Parliament”, a theme that the Tories have been developing.
There is traditionally a recess during late September so MPs can attend their party conferences and normally the recess motion goes through unopposed. We are not in normal times.
In further bad news for Boris, Wrightbus, the Northern Irish company which he awarded the contract to build “Boris Buses” for London while Mayor has gone bust. The new Routemasters championed by Boris have proved a mixed success. The open rear platform he insisted on is hardly ever used outside of a few streets in central London. Boris is already having to answer pointed questions about contracts being given to a US company run by a woman he has known (with allegations that this knowledge is of the biblical variety).
Boris Johnson failed to declare a series of potential conflicts of interest over a close friendship with an American model turned technology entrepreneur during his time as London mayor.
An investigation by The Sunday Times can reveal that the woman, Jennifer Arcuri, was given a total of £126,000 in public money and privileged access to three official overseas trade missions led by Johnson.
Sources have confirmed that Johnson, now 55 and prime minister, was a regular visitor to Arcuri’s top-floor flat in Shoreditch, east London.
Ms Arcuri’s “Hacker House” cyber security company has been awarded government contracts despite not being based in the UK, a condition in the contract tender.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran commented in Parliament that Hacker House "is not based in the UK", Arcuri having moved to the US in 2018, and said that the person living at the company's UK registered address "is in Cheshire where she used to rent", adding that the "current occupant sends post for Miss Arcuri back to sender."
"What steps," asked Moran, "did [DCMS] take to ensure Hacker House was based and operating in the UK? Why did officials waive the rule that the grant couldn't exceed 50 per cent of the company's income? Did the prime minister… make any representations to the department recommending Hacker House for this funding?"
Warman replied: "The prime minister and his staff have absolutely no role in the award of this grant and I suspect I'll be saying that a number of times."
It is also interesting to note the reason why Wrightbus appears to have gone under.
The Cornerstone Group gave away £4.16m in 2017 "to fund the group's commitment to Christian, evangelical and other charitable activities", while posting an overall loss of £1.17m.
The ailing company gave away more than £15m between 2012 and 2017[*], according to its filings with Companies House, despite its financial struggles.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the evangelical Green Pastures Church, run by the company's majority shareholder Jeff Wright, had received around £15 million in donations to fund a planned megachurch expansion.
[*] Wrightbus produced the “Boris buses” for London between 2011 and 2017.
Boris has benefited from businessmen who do not like publicity for his Leave.EU campaign financing (“not enough evidence to prosecute”) and for his Conservative leadership campaign. While I have no doubt these connections are pure coincidences, it would seem it would be adviseable for him to more carefully consider the company he keeps.