Dawn Butler has said there’s no point in being an MP if it’s not to ‘speak truth to power’ as she recounted being kicked out of Parliament for insulting Boris Johnson
A Labour MP who was kicked out of Parliament for calling Boris Johnson a one-word insult has doubled down with a more brutal attack.
Appearing on The Mirror’s new show Party Games, Dawn Butler said the former Tory PM was “gaslighting the whole country” looked back on being thrown out of the Commons in 2021. The moment came up as the Labour MP for Brent East played “Never Have I Ever?” with The Mirror’s Sophie Huskisson – and was asked “Never Have I Ever been told off by the Speaker”.
The Mirror’s new YouTube show Party Games, which launched on Saturday, sees MPs play a series of games, which tease out funny stories, emotional moments and political jabs from MPs. You can watch the first episode with Ms Butler on YouTube by clicking here.
READ MORE: ‘I played Hug, Marry, Avoid with Labour MP Dawn Butler and couldn’t stop laughing’
Asked if she’d ever been told off by the Speaker in the House of Commons, Ms Butler responded: “Well obviously I got thrown out of Parliament for calling Boris Johnson a liar.” Pressed why she called him that, she continued: “Because he was a liar! He lied over and over and over again.
“I was just like, come on, he’s gaslighting the whole country. And I’d had enough. I’m that kind of conviction politician, so what is the point in me being here if I’m not going to sort of speak truth to power? The doorkeepers came up to me and said, I had to leave Parliament – the whole estate – straight away, or do I need to be escorted off? And I was like, good job I had my keys on me.”
The row happened in 2021 during a discussion in the Commons on the prospect of a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. Under the Commons rules, it is forbidden to call another MP a liar and considered unparliamentary language.
But Ms Butler had had enough of Mr Johnson’s behaviour during the pandemic and told the Commons: “Poor people in our country have paid with their lives because the Prime Minister has spent the last 18 months misleading this House and the country over and over again.”
She highlighted disputed claims made by the PM about the Covid vaccination programme, adding: “It’s dangerous to lie in a pandemic. I am disappointed the Prime Minister has not come to the House to correct the record and correct the fact that he has lied to the House and the country over and over again.”
Ms Butler refused and said: “It’s funny that we get in trouble in this place for calling out the lie rather than the person lying.”
After being asked to reflect on her words, she added: “I’ve reflected on my words and somebody needs to tell the truth in this House that the Prime Minister has lied.”
You can watch the first episode with Ms Butler on YouTube by clicking here.
Here’s a look at some of the other best moments from the episode
Would you rather be London mayor or Prime Minister?
“London mayor. To represent London – and I’m a Londoner through, born in East London – just having London the way I have experienced it and see it, and just making London wonderful for everyone, and everyone being sort of proud of London and being a Londoner, yeah, I’d love to be Mayor of London.” Asked if she’d be running in the next mayoral election, she added: “Once there’s a vacancy, I will put my hat in the ring.”
What was your greatest moment in politics?
“I was the first black female MP to ever stand at that despatch box as a government minister. And when I think back, I think, God, I made history. And a few weeks before, we were talking about the abolition of slavery, and I thought, God, they’d all be spinning in their graves knowing that there’s a black woman at the dispatch box representing Her Majesty’s Government. And so that’s one of my proudest moments.”
Would you rather stand out or follow the crowd?
“You have to stand out from the crowd, especially if you’re a Black woman, what’s the point? You’re always going to stand out, right? And I remember somebody saying to me that if I want to be taken seriously as a politician, I need to tone down my dress. And that was it: I was like, illuminate! You’re going to need sunglasses when I walk in a room.”
What is an issue you are passionate about?
“My summer campaign 2025 is about cleaning up our high streets. At the moment, councils are not allowed to say no to betting shops and adult gaming centres. That’s why we have so many in poorer areas. So what I want to do is make sure we change the law – the 2005 Gambling Act – so that councils can have more of a say, so that people can have more of a say, because our high streets deserve to be better, we deserve high streets that are full of beautiful complexity and not so many betting shops.”
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