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Boris Johnson will today be cleared of “buffoonery” by the City Hall standards committee after saying “bollocks” to a panel of MPs.
The Mayor was accused of bringing his office into disrepute after walking out of the meeting on 2 April when MPs said he had failed in his duty to keep transport running after the heaviest London snowfall in 20 years. He shouted “nonsense, bollocks, nonsense” and insisted the “lasagne of grit and snow” on 2 February meant all buses had to be cancelled. City Hall investigated after a member of the public complained that his behaviour was abusive.
Ms S, from Lincolnshire, said the Mayor failed to answer any of the questions put to him properly. She said: “Mr Johnson treated the committee to a barrage of buffoonery, clearly said bollocks' at one point and later walked out.
“He showed a total disregard for one of the fundamental procedures of Government ... and showing a complete ignorance of a subject with which he should have been clearly conversant.”
Three members of the standards committee watched web footage of the meeting. Their report, released today, states: “The Mayor did not fail to treat the Members of the select committee with respect and did not bring his office or the Authority into disrepute.... in itself the term bollocks' is not disrespectful and ... none of the members took offence.” Before the meeting Mr Johnson had appeared at the London Assembly's transport committee to answer similar questions. Only one MP on the select committee was a Tory.
Committee chairman Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said to him: “It appears that you didn't act in accordance with your responsibilities as mayor and as chairman of Transport for London.” He replied: “This is pathetic — you are trying to put the blame on a Tory mayor.” He left after the agreed 40 minutes.
Mr Johnson today said: “I had already submitted my actions [on the night of the snowfall] to a thorough scrutiny by the London Assembly, the primary body for holding the Mayor to account. I agreed to attend the Committee in addition, and — despite an atmosphere of animosity that seemed to stem from the political make-up of the Committee — sought to answer the questions in as full a manner as possible.”
Labour MP Peter Soulsby, who sits on the transport committee, said the report was a whitewash.
Reader views (44)
Typical comment from "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". And probably a Labour or Lib Dem voter. Boris is a breath of fresh air and, in dealing so robustly with the biased make-up in the GLA and on its committees, just what London needs. In fact he would make a good Prime Minister.
- Fido7585, Shifnal, Shropshire, 26/05/2009 17:02
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I'm even tempted to write B*****s across my voting slip for the european elections.
- Triffidqueen, Desk in London, 26/05/2009 12:29
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Certainly he shouldn't be reprimanded. It's exactly this kind out honesty and outspokenness that people like about Boris. A shame that he's such an idiot otherwise.
- John, Biggleswade, 26/05/2009 12:11
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nonsense,that is what most of these people do and are ! But at least bollocks clearly means and explains what he meant by saying bollocks !
In fact he's just speaking normal English !
- Edouard. B, Toulouse, France, 25/05/2009 07:43
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At last someone with a pair!!
We love boris!!!!!!
We need more like him to say what he means, instead of namby pambys
- Colin Norman, medway uk, 24/05/2009 13:21
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Is there going to be an enquiry into why it is going to be so hot this summer?
The weather was exceptional - who was to know how bad to would be? (Remember the hurricanes?)
As tax payers, we need to stop wasting huge amounts on petty enquiries and let Boris get on with his job - no one can be blamed for what happened... unless the church wants an enquiry as to why God made it snow.
I give up with these petty annoying little beaurocrats... and if Mrs. Higginbottom from No. 45 doesn't like the odd mild swear word, let her draw her net curtains and leave the real world alone.
- Nigel L, SW London, 23/05/2009 03:45
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Great Boris!!
that's the right way to deal with these parasites.
- Aloicius, Westminster, 23/05/2009 00:31
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Swearing at them? I think he showed remarkable restraint by not throwing water over them. I am not a Boris fan, but on this occasion, good on him. Reminds me of another man who I don't like much, but Two Jags and the left jab at the egg thrower? Priceless. He didn't often get things right. These men both did during these occasions.
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta etc.
- John Neighbour, London., 22/05/2009 18:00
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Anyone could make a mistake i bought a watch in Tijuana I thought it was a genuine Rolex but now I've got my glases on I can see that the first letter is a B nor an R
- E.Reed, Bournemouth,UK, 22/05/2009 14:48
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Once again I am reminded why we need an election now!
This is the non issue of the century! So what if one of the MP's ‘mothers’ in Lincoln complained ...'you can't talk to my son like that...' Bahh.
They were smirking to each other as they were trying to win points. They need swearing at more often, preferably on their way to fill out their last expense form.
Boris has a tough job and his time is being regularly wasted by the games of a bunch of petty labour non Londoners.
People should let the man get on with his job and Boris should only be accountable as Mayor to Londoners.
- Colin Brown, Peckham, London, 22/05/2009 14:44
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Swearing is the least of his problems. His posturing over the BNP while cutting funding of events, such as Rise, which seek to promote harmony is quite frankly duplicitous. On St George's Day, which Boris promoted, BNP members celebrated in City Hall, once a cradle of diversity, swathed in flags bearing the St George's cross. With such a potent reminder of the distress the BNP cause within his own offices, Boris would do well to address the mismatch in his words and deeds.
- Steve S, London, 22/05/2009 14:30
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Please get your priorities straight. We should be dumping a doom & bust PM Brown now for getting us £160, 000,000,000.oop in debt rather than repeatedly being distracted with this type of left-wing loony propaganda.
- Joe, Thornton Heath, UK, 22/05/2009 12:10
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The performance of Boris but more importantly of the petty, childish Labour interrogators have re-affirmed my belief that my party have been in power too long and that I have no choice but to vote Lib Dem or maybe even Conservative in the upcoming elections.
- St, London, 22/05/2009 11:36
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I agree with P Staker, of London in all that he has stated, further more I do wish Boris would stop raging on like a deranged lunatic, no matter which issue he wants to raise. He had the Flag wrapped around his head at the last Olympics, then walked with his hands in his pockets, he says, he’s going get charging points for electric cars in the Capital, yet we have an energy crisis.
On the matter of the BNP, these BNP chaps have a legitimate right to be at the Palace if invited. Do get a grip of yourself my boy, or bring back Ken ‘ASAP’ because this Boris is an embarrassment to the City.
Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk
- Carl Barron, Christchurch, Dorset, 22/05/2009 10:11
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More people should respond to MPs in this way.
- Pacifus, Newcastle Australia, 22/05/2009 02:34
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He's a PC idiot in a "sensible" Tory guise, as bad as any Labourite.
Latest one is ranting on about how the BNP a legally elected party, should not be allowed to go to the Royal Party.
And since when did blondie boris tell us what to think about and vote for, I thought that's why we wanted Labour out !
Because if this is a taste of the Tory's we may as well keep Labour in, really yes, if the torys are going to be PC whats the difference?
- P Staker, London, 22/05/2009 01:51
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Boris was absolutely right not to be bullied by politically motivated, and wildly biased, Labour MPs still smarting from his clear victory over their appalling candidate. How many more buses would Labour have like to have seen crash, with exactly how many injuries to passengers, before they think it would have been acceptable to halt what was plainly a service too dangerous to continue.
The Mayor is an inspiration to ordinary Londoners, not least for his unwillingness to take unnecessary nonsense from the morally bankrupt and wholly incompetent Labour party.
- Matt, London, UK, 22/05/2009 01:24
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If you can't say "B*******" to a panel of MPs, then to whom can you say it these days?
- Thalia, London UK, 21/05/2009 23:43
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Of course not. Those that do should go and live in the British 'bible belt'. Wherever that is.
- Mark, Venice, Italy, 21/05/2009 22:14
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BORIS FOR SPEAKER. JUST IMAGINE WHEN ALL THOSE MPS CLAIMED FOR THEIR LUDICROUS EXPENSES, 'BOLLOCKS'. NO NEED FOR MONTHS OF AGONIZING WHETHER ONE SHOULD PAY CAPITAL GAINS TAX ON THAT VAST PROFIT, QUITE SIMPLY 'BOLLOCKS'.
BRILLIANT BORIS.
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 21/05/2009 21:50
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Excellent comments from all those in support of Boris! Ee bye goom: if those from oop north don't like it here, there's a train leaving Kings Cross (or is it Euston) in about 20 minutes. Ta-ra,
- Crystalclear, london, 21/05/2009 21:10
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BUT MOST OF WHAT ALL MPS, PRESIDENTS AND HEAD OF STATES SAY IS QUITE SIMPLY BOLLOCKS. QUITE SIMPLY WHEN ON TELEVISION A CELEBRITY USES THE F WORD A HUNDRED ODD TIMES, TO TAKE UMBRAGE AT THIS NATURAL SUMMING UP OF A STATEMENT IS LUDICROUS.
WELL DONE BORIS
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 21/05/2009 21:06
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So Louise Ellman a Labour MP believes that she and her committee should have been shown more respect from Boris!
Who does she think she is? She is simply a politician (our politicians are a laughing stock ) voted in by the people to server the people
- Stephen Cooke, London, 21/05/2009 17:05
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If this is the way he behaves then what will it be like when or if he aspires to be PM. Will he dare say that to President Obama for instance. What a clown.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 21/05/2009 16:38
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bollocks is not a swear word.
The sex pistols proved this in court for the album – never mind the bollocks, here comes the sex pistols
They won the case, so bollocks to them Boris...
- Sean Dempsey, hayes london., 21/05/2009 15:57
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OMG now I so want Boris to rule the whole planet. I long for the day that we can all say billhooks to Gordon and his oink oinky troughing mates. A plague on both your taxpayer funded houses!
If it's now in order may I be the first to wish Labour Cllr Melvyn Windy and the only other Nu Liebour supporter a merry billhooks too?
- Ethan, UK, 21/05/2009 15:52
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He was just being polite!
- R Jones, Bristol, 21/05/2009 15:40
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Hi
I feel Boris should step down this is Politics not a school play pen. People like him have made a mess of this Country and get well paid for it.
If you said this at work you could be sacked. i feel he is a vile man and should go.
- Neil Allen, London, 21/05/2009 14:32
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I saw that interrogation on the TV. It was exactly what he called it. The simple fact is that once every twenty years or so, London gets hit by snowfall far too severe for our services to cope with. Because it happens so rarely, it is not cost-effective to spend lots more on snowploughs and suchlike. For the same reason and human nature, whatever good plans are made in the aftermath of one heavy snow event, will be forgotten and/or obsolete by the time of the next one.
This is really all one can say about it, and what Boris was trying to tell them. What's so bad about taking a day off and enjoying the snow with the kids anyway?
Who knows - maybe twenty-odd years from now we'll discover that Boris has bequeathed London a better snow plan than the one he inherited from whoever was running the show last time around. Would that have been Ken Livingstone's GLC by any chance? Not that I'd blame Ken for the chaos any more than I'd blame Boris.
- Nigel, London, 21/05/2009 14:23
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Class act or what?
- Dee Jay, Fleet Hampshire, 21/05/2009 14:02
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I would not mind using the same language at those useless Crash Gordon Nu Labor baffoons.
- Georgie, Islington, London, 21/05/2009 12:58
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I watched footage of the meeting in question. It was entirely politically motivated and most of the comments from the panel of left-liberal nonsense persons was facile and irrelevant. In short, they were all talking b******s. In that sense Boris never had a case to answer.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 21/05/2009 12:38
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Agree with all the previous posters:
That the democratically elected conservative Mayor of London should have to sit before a panel of almost exclusively Northern Labour MP's is an insult to Londoners, and an insult to democracy in general.
Can you imagine a Labour Mayor of Liverpool having to sit before a panel of London Conservative MP's?
It WAS a politically motivated piece of theatre, and Boris was quite right to pay it the respect he did. If it was intended to be objective, why not an even, cross-party panel?
Sheer, utter nonsense. Or as Boris would say: 'bollocks'.
- John, London, 21/05/2009 12:01
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A load of left-wing MPs berate the Mayor for not preparing for a once in every 15-20 year event, but they complacently sit in their taxpayer-funded penthouses whilst Gordon Brown gets ready to write a £20bn cheque to replace one unused nuclear missile system with another.
I'd like to say b*ll*cks to this panel of MPs too. Glad that Boris did it on my behalf.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland, 21/05/2009 11:55
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Well its obviously language that goes along with Public School twits us secondary modern kids were brought up with manners and not manors!! QUACK QUACK>>
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 21/05/2009 11:48
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Boris has funney hair I love hims o much
- Tim, London, 21/05/2009 11:34
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The chairwoman who represents Liverpool Riverside (Boris should not even lower himself to the level of having to answer to anyone from a dump like that)has the nerve to critcise anyone from any other major city in the UK is a joke in itself !!!
- Nick Holland, glasgow, 21/05/2009 11:19
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An elected Tory London Mayor should not be answerable to a bunch of Northern Labour MPs. He should only be answerable to the votors, and recognised committees representing the interests of Londoners. He should not have bothered to turn up to listen to their vowel challenged garbage. If the original complainant (a Mrs S Lincolnshire) thinks the word used amounts to bad language and abuse then she needs to get a life away from the rest of the inbred carrot crunchers of rural England.
- Pat, South London, 21/05/2009 11:11
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NO LANGUAGE IS STRONG ENOUGH TO DESCRIBE THE HYPOCRITICAL MP's WHO HAVE SCREWED JOE PUBLIC TO THE GROUND WITH COUNTLESS PETTY LAWS.
IT IS TIME THE SAME LAWS APPLIED TO MP's.
WHERE ARE THE POLICE?
WHERE ARE THE HANDCUFFS?
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK, 21/05/2009 10:31
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I watched it all and it was a thoroughly partisan panel.
Why a democratically elected Mayor of London is accountable to these numpties is beyond me.
Boris is accountable and responsible only to the London electorate.
I voted (second vote) for him and other than an unnecessary focus on ruddy climate change like last weekend in Seoul, he's doing a fine job.
- Giles Pepperell, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, 21/05/2009 10:16
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Boris cleared of buffoonery? Well that was a wasted vote then!
- John R, London, England, 21/05/2009 10:07
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I can’t believe Boris if being criticised for showing zero interest in such a pointless committee.
Everyone loved the snow-day, so instead of listening to anti-Boris jobsworths waffling on, I for one am glad Boris walked out to get on with work which will actually affect our lives.
These committees are a joke and everyone knows it.
- St, London, 21/05/2009 09:37
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Good on you Boris. My language will be riper when/if I meet any of that thieving vermin.
".. bringing his office into disrepute .."?
How about MPs bringing the whole democratic system into disrepute!
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 21/05/2009 09:10
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I dont like your politics Boris, but u r a funny guy, and a breath of fresh air to polotics.
- Brian, Wiltshire, 21/05/2009 08:49
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