While Starmer launches an inquiry into all the negative briefings about Sue Gray, Harriet Harman has been running defence. Just like she did for Ian Corfield…

Harman on Newsnight naturally blamed the entire saga on the fact that her mate Sue is an “older woman“:

“I think there is something about an older woman in authority that some young men find hard to put up with… I feel very annoyed with them and I think they’re breaking the ministerial code and they shouldn’t be doing it.”

Harman admonishes SpAds who’ve had their salaries cut by Gray for “moaning about their pay and trying to show her in a bad light“. If Starmer wants to “clamp down” on the anti-Gray briefer he might end up sacking half of his own government…

Speaking to Times Radio, Harriet Harman justified banker Ian Corfield’s appointment as director in the Treasury after giving £20,000 to Labour politicians:

“He’s an extremely wealthy individual and I think that in the scale of donations that probably seems like a small amount of money for him but for everybody else that seems like a lot of money.”

Harriet Harman has been elected Chair of the Commons Standards Committee, replacing Chris Bryant after his appointment to the Shadow Cabinet. Liam Byrne has also been elected chair of the Business and Trade Committee (despite his two-day bullying suspension last year), with Cat Smith becoming Petitions Committee chair. Here’s the vote breakdown:

• Standards: Harriet Harman (341)
• Business and Trade: Liam Byrne (216)
• Petitions: Cat Smith (227)

Harman filled in for Bryant to lead the Kangaroo Court earlier this year. Look how that turned out…

As if it were in any doubt, Harriet Harman has once again revealed the political nature of the Priviliges Committee’s campaign against Boris Johnson. Speaking to Iain Dale at Edinburgh Fringe, the marsupial mastermind first defended her investigation  – denying it was a Kangaroo Court – right before describing how they would prepare for sessions by mocking the former Prime Minister. The show trial’s rehearsals featured “absolutely hilarious” impressions of Boris Johnson, then a sitting MP, by a Commons Clerk. Harriet continued:

“We had two whole days of rehearsals of it, with one of the clerks being Boris Johnson, which was absolutely hilarious because he was ruffling his hair and roleplaying. And normally the clerks are very staid, sober, rational, logical people; but he really took to it.”

Seems a little roo-de…

In one chippy section of the Privileges Committee’s report they claim that

“…from the outset of this inquiry there has been a sustained attempt, seemingly co-ordinated, to undermine the Committee’s credibility and, more worryingly, that of those Members serving on it. The Committee is concerned that if these behaviours go unchallenged, it will be impossible or the House to establish such a Committee to conduct sensitive and important inquiries in the future. The House must have a Committee to defend its rights and it must protect Members of the House doing that duty from formal or informal attack or undermining designed to deter and prevent them from doing that duty. We will be making a Special Report separately to the House dealing with these matters.”

It has been our openly stated opinion from the outset that this was a Kangaroo Court and that Harriet Harman was not a fit person to chair the committee (Harman Unfit for Quasi-Judicial Privileges Committee Chairmanship) for the reasons we outlined, as per her tweets she had already made up her mind:

If Bernard Jenkin thinks we are “undermining his credibility” by attacking his hypocrisy over his own law-breaking attendance at a party with drinks and cake during lockdown, it is for him to quite simply explain in this Special Report why the standards he piously demanded of Boris Johnson don’t apply to him. The matter is not irrelevant, it goes to the heart of his credibility and questions his authority to sit in judgement. Since Guido understands valid complaints have or are going to be made to the parliamentary authorities he will presumably get an opportunity to explain himself under oath. His current vow of silence will have to come to an end.

Guido suspects this Special Report will restrict its censure to parliamentarians who questioned the credibility of the “Kangaroo Court”. They won’t want to be seen to be attacking the freedom of the press. However, if they want to come after Guido, bring it on!

As of this morning, Bernard Jenkin is still refusing to talk after Guido’s exclusive yesterday afternoon. He was spotted – ashen faced – hanging around at the Speaker’s office end of the library corridor in Parliament last night while on the phone. Whoever he was speaking to, it wasn’t the media…

Guido hears other MPs have since written to the Privileges Committee over Jenkin’s conduct following Nadine Dorries’ letter last night. At least one MP has also reportedly written to Parliamentary sleaze watchdog Daniel Greenberg, which could lead to an investigation if accepted. Boris himself has written directly to Kangaroo Court chair Harriet Harman, demanding to know if any other Committee inquisitors have broken the rules…

Speaking of the Kangaroo Court, its 33,000 word report is expected at around 9 a.m., with Boris’s response published soon after. The report, which is longer than Of Mice and Men, will find Boris committed “multiple” contempts of Parliament, and would have recommended a Commons suspension of longer than 10 days. Guido looks forward to reading Bernard’s analysis. When Guido asked his fellow Tory MPs how they felt about the news last night, one simply said “we are all laughing”…