James O'Brien's brutal takedown of 'fascistic' defence of Boris Johnson

8 August 2022, 12:29 | Updated: 8 August 2022, 13:33

By Seán Hickey

Britain is moving in a 'fascistic direction' as the right-wing media lead a 'cultish' campaign to defend Boris Johnson, James O'Brien fears.

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The Commons Privileges Committee has come under fire from supporters of the Prime Minister in both the media and political spheres in the past week.

Lord Goldsmith and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries have prominently branded an investigation into whether Boris Johnson has misled Parliament a "witch-hunt".

The Prime Minister could face being booted out of the Commons if the Committee finds that Mr Johnson misled Parliament when he claimed that gatherings at Number 10 during lockdown abided by the rules in place at the time.

Since his claim, hundreds of fines were issued to those attending Partygate events at Number 10 – including Boris Johnson and Conservative leadership candidate Rishi Sunak.

As well as allegations made by senior Conservative politicians, the Daily Mail named four Conservative MPs who were on the Privileges Committee and will "help pass judgement" on Boris Johnson.

James O'Brien on the right wing attacks on those condemning Boris Johnson

James O'Brien reflected on the pile-on from the media and Johnson loyalists, fearing that the country is taking a dangerous turn.

"That fear that I have about the direction of travel and the fact we occasionally use the f-word when we discuss British politics...you get that fascistic movement, that fascistic direction when everybody becomes an enemy."

"I never thought I'd see the day that Conservative MPs...are getting the full enemies of the people treatment" he said.

James declared the media-political campaign a "denial of observable reality" and urged listeners to "think about what that says about our democracy" for politicians to attack their own colleagues for judging whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament.

James O'Brien then paraphrased the Martin Niemöller poem First They Came, suggesting that those who would defend these MPs under scrutiny have disappeared, because the government and the right-wing media have castigated everyone who would possibly come out to condemn the action.

"This is like 14 year old girls attacking you for not loving Duran Duran enough."

Offering an analogy for the current state of British politics, James wondered if the UK has "reached our big lie moment".

"When a cultish newspaper defends a corrupt prime minister by calling for an independent investigation into his dishonesty to be curtailed, to be called off, to be undermined, that is the same as Donald Trump supporters believing him when he says he's been the victim of a big lie."