A clip of Boris Johnson being handed a self-titled book on pathological lying has resurfaced after Labour MP Dawn Butler was thrown out of the House of Commons for trying to face the issue head on this week.
Jolyon Rubinstein, creator of The Revolution Will Be Televised, was filmed trying to hand the prime minister the book in 2017 as part of a hilarious sketch.
The satirist confronted the PM asking: “Are you lying right now?
“I can never tell if you’re doing it or not”.
The clip has resurfaced after Dawn Butler was ejected from the House of Commons this week after she held Johnson to account for misleading Parliament.
In a passionate speech, the Labour MP for Brent said that Johnson had claimed that the UK has “severed the link between infection and serious disease” in the battle against Covid-19.
“Not only is this not true, but it is dangerous – and it is dangerous to lie in a pandemic,” Butler said. “I’m disappointed that the prime minister has not come to the House to correct the record and to correct the fact that he has lied to this House and to the country over and over again.”
Asked by the deputy speaker to retract her accusation and correct the record, Butler said: “At the end of the day, the prime minister has lied to this house time and time again. It’s funny that in this place we get in trouble for calling out the lies, rather than the person lying.”
After again being told to withdraw her statement and “reflect on her words”, Butler continued: “I’ve reflected on my words. Somebody needs to tell the truth in this House – that the prime minister has lied.”
She was subsequently forced to leave the House of Commons, and suspended for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, a petition to ‘make lying in parliament history’ is closing in on 150,000 signatures, with over 125,000 people signing at the time of writing.
The campaign, spearheaded by Rubinstein, notes:
“If I were to lie in a court of law, I would go to jail. But it’s entirely legal for an MP to lie to Parliament. Doesn’t sound right, does it?
“In order to gauge the support for stopping MPs from lying please sign the petition here and let’s start a public debate about how we can make politicians’ lies history.“
Sign it here.
Related: Johnson’s ‘vaccine bounce’ fades as Tories slide in the polls
