MP stripped of whip says Boris made an ‘improper request’

BORIS JOHNSON was accused of making an “improper request” to MPs by the newly elected chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee today.

Julian Lewis made the accusation in a statement after being expelled from the Conservative parliamentary party as punishment for beating the PM’s choice of former transport secretary Chris Grayling to head the committee.

Two former chairs of the ISC criticised No 10 for attempting to fix the election for the committee chair, with former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind saying Mr Johnson was “author of his own misfortunes”. Mr Lewis yesterday joined Labour MPs to block Mr Grayling and get himself elected into the chair.

In a statement he denied breaking a promise to vote for Mr Grayling and said the Prime Minister had no right to choose the chairman of the committee.

“It was only yesterday afternoon that I received a text asking me to confirm that I would be voting for the Prime Minister’s preferred candidate for the ISC chair,” he said. “I did not reply as I considered it an improper request. At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate.”

Sir Malcolm said Mr Johnson had no business interfering in the election which was passed to MPs by law in 2013.

“I think the Prime Minister or his advisers have handled this in an extremely incompetent way,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. He said No 10’s plot to control the chair would have destroyed “the whole purpose” of the committee, which is to provide impartial oversight of the intelligence and security services. Another former chair, Dominic Grieve, said the episode was “an utter absurdity”. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner called the move against Mr Lewis “grubby”.

The PM’s official spokesman declined to respond to the claims. But a senior Tory source claimed Mr Lewis had broken an agreement. “He had agreed with the Chief Whip to support Mr Grayling’s candidacy. At no point did he tell the Chief Whip or anyone else he had intended to contest it. Instead he colluded with Labour and opposition MPs.”

Conservatives have a majority on the ISC, with five out of nine places. The committee was meeting today to decide whether rush out its report into Russian interference in UK politics.