South Swindon MP Robert Buckland has told a TV interviewer that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign if he broke the Ministerial Code.
Mr Buckland, sacked from his role as Justice Secretary in a Cabinet reshuffle late last year, appeared on Sky News to talk about his work on behalf of people with autism and learning difficulties detained under archaic laws.
He planned to raise the issue in Parliament later today - 20 January.
Interviewer Kay Burley began by quizzing Mr Buckland about the ongoing allegations that the Prime Minister took part in Downing Street parties during times of covid restrictions.
Ms Burley, who was herself suspended from her Sky News role for six months from December of 2020 because her 60th birthday party breached rules, noted that the Prime Minister claimed he was not aware he was breaking the law, and asked Mr Buckland whether ignorance of the law was a defence.
Mr Buckland replied: "When it comes to criminal law, ignorance is not a defence. I think it's important that, in explaining these things to those doing the inquiry, that full context is set out."
The interviewer asked whether, if the Prime Minister misled Parliament or broke the law, he should step down.
Mr Buckland said: "I think the Ministerial Code is very clear about this sort of thing. Deliberately misleading Parliament, rule-breaking, law-breaking, is a matter for resignation, and I think that applies to everybody in Government, and the Prime Minister is no exception to that."
Mr Buckland said apologies were a good start in addressing the matter, and added: "I think we also need to hear the fullest explanation, and that's why the inquiry that's going to report, I hope, very soon, will give us the fullest possible set of facts and we can then make judgements about this - judgements about those responsible and those involved, and that consequences will follow, whatever that might be."
The former Justice Secretary reflected on the partying issue as a whole, including allegations relating to the day before the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, saying: "Anybody looking at any of this, particularly those events on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral, will be shocked at the very least and appalled in many cases that this was happening."
Sympathising with members of the public who obeyed the rules and were denied the chance to be with dying loved ones, Mr Buckland said: "It's very difficult, isn't it, for people who in those circumstances lost loved ones to forgive or to move on, but this is a set of circumstances where, frankly, I think the only way to deal with it is to be absolutely up front and to acknowledge responsibility, and to take the consequences, whatever those might be."
Turning to the detention of people with autism and learning disabilities under the Mental Health Act, Mr Buckland said: "There are still about 2,000 people, 200 of which are children, who are being detained within our system by using a piece of legislation that's now the thick end of 40 years of age.
"These are people who actually don't in many instances have what, I think, we would regard as a mental health condition. They have a lifelong condition, most notably autism."
Revealing that some people had been detained for up to 20 years, Mr Buckland said: "It seems to me that in 2022 we shouldn't be accepting the sort of conditions that we thought we'd got rid of a generation ago, and I think it's vital that I raise these issues in the House of Commons with the Government, to press them to implement the policy that they themselves have agreed on, which moves away from this, frankly, rather barbaric practice, and do more to give support to people in the community, where they belong, rather than being detained under a very old piece of law that needs reform."
He planned to raise the issue in Parliament later today - 20 January.
Interviewer Kay Burley began by quizzing Mr Buckland about the ongoing allegations that the Prime Minister took part in Downing Street parties during times of covid restrictions.
Ms Burley, who was herself suspended from her Sky News role for six months from December of 2020 because her 60th birthday party breached rules, noted that the Prime Minister claimed he was not aware he was breaking the law, and asked Mr Buckland whether ignorance of the law was a defence.
Mr Buckland replied: "When it comes to criminal law, ignorance is not a defence. I think it's important that, in explaining these things to those doing the inquiry, that full context is set out."
The interviewer asked whether, if the Prime Minister misled Parliament or broke the law, he should step down.
Mr Buckland said: "I think the Ministerial Code is very clear about this sort of thing. Deliberately misleading Parliament, rule-breaking, law-breaking, is a matter for resignation, and I think that applies to everybody in Government, and the Prime Minister is no exception to that."
Mr Buckland said apologies were a good start in addressing the matter, and added: "I think we also need to hear the fullest explanation, and that's why the inquiry that's going to report, I hope, very soon, will give us the fullest possible set of facts and we can then make judgements about this - judgements about those responsible and those involved, and that consequences will follow, whatever that might be."
The former Justice Secretary reflected on the partying issue as a whole, including allegations relating to the day before the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, saying: "Anybody looking at any of this, particularly those events on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral, will be shocked at the very least and appalled in many cases that this was happening."
Sympathising with members of the public who obeyed the rules and were denied the chance to be with dying loved ones, Mr Buckland said: "It's very difficult, isn't it, for people who in those circumstances lost loved ones to forgive or to move on, but this is a set of circumstances where, frankly, I think the only way to deal with it is to be absolutely up front and to acknowledge responsibility, and to take the consequences, whatever those might be."
Turning to the detention of people with autism and learning disabilities under the Mental Health Act, Mr Buckland said: "There are still about 2,000 people, 200 of which are children, who are being detained within our system by using a piece of legislation that's now the thick end of 40 years of age.
"These are people who actually don't in many instances have what, I think, we would regard as a mental health condition. They have a lifelong condition, most notably autism."
Revealing that some people had been detained for up to 20 years, Mr Buckland said: "It seems to me that in 2022 we shouldn't be accepting the sort of conditions that we thought we'd got rid of a generation ago, and I think it's vital that I raise these issues in the House of Commons with the Government, to press them to implement the policy that they themselves have agreed on, which moves away from this, frankly, rather barbaric practice, and do more to give support to people in the community, where they belong, rather than being detained under a very old piece of law that needs reform."
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