After the publication of the damning report by the Commons privileges committee on 15 June, it seemed that the parliamentary pass normally available to an ex-MP might be withheld from him. In a letter published in The Times on 17 June, Alistair Lexden suggested a different sanction.
Sir, In June 1963 Jack Profumo was removed from the privy council for giving a false statement to parliament. Exactly sixty years later Boris Johnson should suffer the same penalty, which would stop him calling himself right honourable (which he plainly is not). If some of the many minions he put on the privy council chose to resign in protest, it would not matter in the least. This ancient institution now has over 750 members, some 400 more than sixty years ago. It could do with slimming, like the House of Lords.
Yours faithfully
Lord Lexden
Conservative Party historian
