Following the showdown on the last day of Parliament before their summer recess, in which MP Dawn Butler was asked to leave the House Of Commons for calling Prime Minister Boris Johnson a liar, over 126,000 people have now signed a petition to end lying in Parliament.
Saturist Jolyon Rubinstein, 40, originally began the Make Lying In Parliament History petition seven years ago when the government backtracked on promises not to raise tuition fees, and reinstated it this week following Ms Butler highlighting the times Mr Johnson appeared to mislead the public.
Jolyon, who is best known for The Revolution Will Be Televised, told Metro.co.uk: ‘I have huge respect for the parliamentary procedures that have kept this democracy stable for over 100 years.
‘When we started the petition, seven years ago, we were talking about tuition fees. How quaint does that sound now, all these years later?
‘When I saw Dawn Butler challenging procedure in the house, I thought it was very admirable. It’s also troubling, I think, when you watch the Dominic Cummings interview, it seems clear that Cummings himself believes that there were – let’s just put it lightly – sorts of half truths told in both the referendum and the general election.
‘It seemed to me that the Make Lying In Parliament History campaign felt very timely, again, because I think people feel deeply frustrated. I think they feel disenfranchised from the truth and what I hope to do with this petition is to start a public dialogue about truth in politics.’
Ms Butler, the Labour MP for Brent Central, had been ordered off the estate immediately after her speech in the Commons, as MPs are not allowed to call other MPs, or the prime minister, liars.
While Jolyon is a firm believer in the importance of parliamentary privilege for the right reasons, he believes the system needs adapting to fit with what is going on now, adding: ‘My personal politics was tested to the absolute limit by the continued stories of PPE and the lack of our ability seemingly to reward the heroes on the front line of the NHS with an adequate pay increase, whilst simultaneously being told, for instance, we’ve got £130billion for new nuclear weapons.
‘Like many people, I’ve I felt frustrated, but a prime minister lying to the house with impunity cannot stand. It simply can’t. And I think that we’ve reached a point where we need to have a broader public conversation about this again.
‘We need to be able to make sure that the the very necessary and rightful privileges remain for members of parliament to bring up things in Parliament, not facing prosecution by raising issues such as phone hacking – that’s very necessary, that’s an important part of our democracy.
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‘But what we’re talking about here, is the prime minister simply adopting this type of Trumpian alternative fact reality. If I was in a court of law, and I was lying about a speeding ticket, then I’d face the full force of the law. And when I was making television shows, the rigour with which we need to demonstrate fact should not be to a higher standard than that which we hold the Prime Minister of our country.’
Jolyon’s was also inspired to restart the petition, which is fronted by stars including Jack Whitehall and Russell Brand, after receiving messaged from frontline workers who were losing hope at the government’s mixed messaging around the coronavirus pandemic meaning some members of the public were less inclined to follow the rules if the very people in power were not being held to account themselves.
He explains: ‘When you are reached out to by a frontline nurse, who’s come off shift and is totally, totally distraught, because what she’s hearing in the public narrative, said by politicians and what she’s experiencing, just do not tally, or you’re contacted by a consultant doctor who’s talking to you about just how far away from the truth it is and just how serious situations are, there’s not much a satirist like me can do apart from take it to Twitter to raise awareness.
‘I think that unless we actually try to deal with this, then we give full rein to the kind of Covidiots, the conspiracy theorists who say wild and lunatic things that are damaging our democracy, because they look at politicians in the highest office not being taken to account and they say: “Well, if that’s happening, then this all must be true,” and that, in my mind, is an extremely dangerous kind of death spiral.
‘As someone who has seen friends’ parents pass away from Covid, it’s changed me. It’s changed all of us and we deserve better than politicians lying to us with impunity.
‘What we witnessed Dawn Butler do, was for social media, because she knew she’d be kicked out. But what she’s doing is highlighting the absurdity of a system where, by telling the truth about the fact that the Prime Minister lied, she is ejected from the House of Commons.
‘Now that cannot be right. Surely, in a functioning democracy, we need to be able to call a spade a spade, if it is indeed a spade, and it can be empirically evidenced as such.’
The Make Lying In Parliament History petition is available here.
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