LONDON:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has plunged Britain into a constitutional crisis by violating the law he put in place for pandemic restrictions, effectively tearing the ministerial code apart,” the country’s leading constitutional expert said on Sunday.
Peter Hennessy, a historian and member of the upper house of parliament, said Johnson had become “the big loser in the modern age of decency in public and political life” after he was fined by police for attending a social gathering. in Downing Street while restrictions were in place.
The ministerial code describes the standards of conduct that are expected of ministers and how they perform their duties, according to the government website.
Johnson has been accused by opposition lawmakers of misleading parliament on the issue after telling parliament last year that all rules were being followed in Downing Street during the pandemic. He will appear in the House of Commons on Tuesday to explain why he has been fined by the police.
He has also apologized after becoming the first British leader to break the law while in office. Police are investigating further rallies and he could face further fines.
“I think we are in the most serious constitutional crisis with a prime minister I can remember,” Hennessy told BBC Radio, asking why anyone in public life would follow the rules when the prime minister didn’t.
“The prime minister sealed his place in British history as the first lawbreaker to occupy the premiership,” he said, adding that he was no longer worthy of serving the Queen or her country.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a minister in Johnson’s cabinet, said he respected Hennessy but felt the constitutional expert had not fully understood the constitutional significance of the ministerial code.
Johnson, he said, had told parliament in good faith that he had not broken any rules because he did not believe he had.
“It’s very hard to see how he could reach the high bar of deliberately misleading parliament,” Rees-Mogg told the BBC. “So I think Lord Hennessy, who is one of the foremost living constitutionalists, is wrong on this occasion.”
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