Johnson’s chief of staff lied to media about drafting of Benn act, Grieve says at PMQs

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, has been accused by a senior backbencher of lying to journalists to undermine MPs.

Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, told the Commons during prime minister’s questions that Cummings was believed to have briefed a Sunday newspaper this weekend to claim that MPs had received assistance from foreign governments while drafting the EU Withdrawal (No 2) Act, known as the Benn act.

Addressing the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who was standing in for Boris Johnson while the prime minister was delivering his keynote speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Grieve asked: “How is it that the government is allowing special advisers at No 10 Downing Street, speaking on behalf of the government, to tell outright lies?

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“He should be familiar that on Saturday such a special adviser who I believe is Mr Dominic Cummings told the Mail on Sunday that a number of honourable members were in receipt of foreign funding in order to draft what is known as the Benn act, which is totally untrue.

“He went on to say that this was going to be the subject of a government investigation – something which is also completely untrue because mercifully this country is not yet run as a police state by Mr Cummings.”

The newspaper’s report claimed No 10 had launched a major investigation into alleged links between foreign governments and MPs behind what Johnson has controversially described as the “surrender act”.

The legislation, passed last month, states that if the prime minister fails to win a deal by the end of the next EU summit on 18 October, he must write a letter to Brussels asking for the UK’s departure to be delayed until 31 January.

Raab responded to Grieve by repeating the government’s line that “advisers advise and ministers decide”.

The prime minister’s spokesman declined to comment further on Grieve’s question

, which came after the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, made her first appearance at the dispatch box, standing in for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

She made history by becoming the first minority ethnic MP to lead any party at PMQs.

Abbott raised the issues of abuse aimed at MPs, abortion rights in Northern Ireland, the so-called “rape clause” connected to tax credits and the plight of workers at the collapsed travel firm Thomas Cook, before accusing the government of “letting women down”.

Their exchanges included lighthearted moments, too, as Raab, also a PMQs novice, initially stood up too early after believing Abbott had finished her first question.

Abbott tried to ask a seventh question – one beyond the allotted six – before being stopped by the Speaker, John Bercow.

She began by asking Raab to apologise for remarks made last week by Johnson, who said “humbug” in response to concerns raised by Labour’s Paula Sherriff about threats received by MPs.

Abbott said Sheriff had received “four further death threats” since her exchange with the prime minister, noting that some of those quoted Johnson’s words.

Raab did not apologise on behalf of the prime minister but called for a “zero-tolerance” approach to any abuse or threats against MPs.

Abbott also highlighted billboards put up in Walthamstow, east London, targeting the Labour MP Stella Creasy for supporting the decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland.

Abbott later said: “Whether it’s women members in this house, women claiming benefits, women’s reproductive rights in Northern Ireland, and the failure to support women workers at Thomas Cook, isn’t this a government letting women down?”

Raab replied: “On this side of the house we’re proud to be on our second female prime minister.”

In her concluding remarks, Abbott said: “The foreign secretary hasn’t mentioned the fact there are over 600,000 more women and girls in poverty now than in 2010.

“I was a member of this house when Tory MPs defenestrated the then female prime minister, Mrs Thatcher, and I’ve been a member of this house when Tory MPs worked their will to the immediate female prime minister.

“It seems to me that Tory members of parliament may on occasion make women their leaders but they need to learn how to treat them less cruelly.”

Raab replied: “Can I just gently say to the shadow home secretary that in relation to Margaret Thatcher, if she wants to talk about treating them better, she might have a word with the shadow chancellor [John McDonnell] who talked about going back in time to assassinate her. That’s not appropriate language on her side.”