Partygate probe: Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg named in privileges committee special report

Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg have been identified, along with  other Conservative MPs, as putting “improper pressure” on the partygate probe. The privileges committee has published its special report today, detailing a ‘co-ordinated campaign of interference’ while it investigated the conduct of Boris Johnson.

In the report, Nadine Dorries is named four times and Mark Jenkinson, Michael Fabricant, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Andrea Jenkyns, Priti Patel and Zac Goldsmith are all also cited for putting “sustained pressure” on the investigation.

The committee’s initial report was published on June 15 and concluded that Boris Johnson committed “repeated contempts of parliament” including misleading the House of Commons. However, a special supplementary report has now been published outlining the “improper pressure brought to bear on the Committee” during the probe.

The special report outlined that seven Conservative MPs and one life peer put “unprecedented and co-ordinated pressure”on the probe, leading to a “significant personal impact on individual members” and “significant security concerns”.

The Privileges Committee highlighted a ‘campaign waged outside Parliament by some Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords’ in order to undermine the investigation. The findings pointed to an ‘extensive use of social media’ by some of those involved.

According to the report, Ms Dorries remarked on Twitter: “We also need ​​to keep a close eye on the careers of the Conservative MPs who sat on that committee.” Jacob Rees-Mogg was also found to criticise the committee during a talk show on GB News.

He said: “The privileges committee is not even a proper legal setup. It has a gossamer of constitutional propriety thrown over it, but it is in fact a political committee against Boris Johnson.”

One of the MPs, Michael Fabricant, responded to the report by tweeting: “Respect for the Committee needs to be earned.”

While Mark Jenkinson, MP for Workington, said: “On publication of the previous report I said it had overreached. Prior to publication I had not referred to the committee.

“Yet in another perfect example of gross overreach, the committee use a tweet that did not refer to them and was about the media witch hunt of Boris Johnson.”