"It's bent! That is what they have done."
Rather than addressing the country’s problems, the Tory party has once more descended into chaos and internal rows after a senior Brexiteer accused his own party of being ‘bent’.
The comments were made by Mark Francois after he claimed that the government was trying to rig a committee to stop Brexiteers from voting the ‘wrong way’.
Francois, who is chair of the European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Tory MPs was furious at the government for “sacking” five Tory MPs from a committee which votes on crucial Brexit legislation because the government wants to impose pro-EU measures.
The row relates to Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework deal on Northern Ireland which would allow the EU to put checks on parcels going from mainland Britain.
Francois condemned the actions of the government, telling the committee that while it was normal for MPs to be replaced on a committee if they cannot attend for personal reasons, “what is not the norm is for people to be taken off a committee against their will.”
He added: “That is completely irregular and that is what has happened here five times over on the same committee.
“That is not in order, that is not a convention, it is the government trying to rig a committee by getting rid of people who they thought might have the moral courage to vote the wrong way.
“It’s bent! That is what they have done.”
He then told the Committee chair Mark Pritchard: “You Sir, should not be facilitating it.
“You yourself have admitted that the committee membership was only finalised 50 minutes before it was due to begin. That’s extraordinary.”
Pritchard then asked Francois to withdraw the word bent, before Jacob Rees-Mogg intervened and said the chairman “does not have the authority to make you withdraw.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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