Dawn Butler ‘threatened with police’ after being thrown out of Commons over PM ‘liar’ remark

‘I got approached and told I needed to leave parliament now,’ Labour MP says

Dawn Butler was threatened with a police escort if she did not leave the House of Commons building after she was ejected from the chamber last year, the Labour MP has revealed.

In July 2021, the politician was thrown out of the Commons after accusing Boris Johnson of being a liar – an accusation which is forbidden under parliamentary rules.

Ms Butler, 52, told MPs that the prime minister "lied to the house and the country over and over again" about a range of pandemic-related issues.

Speaking to BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Richie Brave about the aftermath of the incident, Ms Butler said: “When I got thrown out, I thought that was it. I was going to get myself a drink in one of the many bars in parliament because I was a bit shaky.

“And then I got approached and I was told I needed to leave parliament now, and they said ‘are you going to leave now or do we need to get the police to escort you off the premises?’”

The MP for Brent also spoke to the BBC about the treatment from her own party following that day.

“People in my own party were ready to disown me. Some MPs stopped following me. And they were disowning me because I broke Parliamentary rules. It’s like they didn’t feel proud of me that I was brave enough to call the prime minister a liar,” Ms Butler said.

”There were people who were like ‘your career is done, your career is over. You’ve called the prime minister a liar, that’s it’,” she added.

“The people who I expected a phone call from to say ‘Dawn we’ve got your back’… no it didn’t happen. And I got a lot of abuse as well.”

Ms Butler was suspended from the Commons under Standing Order 43, with which the speaker of the house can order any member to withdraw from the house for “the remainder of the day’s sitting” for conduct which is considered to be “grossly disorderly”; however, there is nothing in the rules which calls for police enforcement of regulations.

Black people are more likely to be stopped by the police and arrested in Britain, compared with their white counterparts.

Since the incident, Ms Butler has doubled down on her feelings about Mr Johnson’s conduct.

“We’ve got the most outrageous, corrupt, lying prime minister this country’s ever seen. And the rules are not strong enough to hold the gravity of the man’s lies,” she told the BBC.

The full interview will be broadcast on BBC Radio 1Xtra this Sunday from 9-10pm.

Speaking to LBC following the incident on 26 July, Labour leader Keir Starmer said Ms Butler was right to call Mr Johnson a liar, branding him the “master of untruths and half-truths”.

“I think there’s a lot of people that feel that, you know, it’s the person who’s not telling the truth rather than the person who’s calling it out that ought to be on the hotspot. So, I agree with Dawn on that,” Mr Starmer said.

“But I do want to, in fairness to the temporary speaker, Judith Cummins, who was there, she did the right thing, she followed the rules because parliament doesn’t allow you to call other parliamentarians liars in the chamber, so I don’t criticise the deputy speaker for what she did, she was following the rules. But do I support Dawn in what she said? I absolutely do.”

Ms Butler revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in March and would be taking time off work to recover following an operation.

The MP said cancer cells were discovered at a “very early stage” during a routine mammogram towards the end of last year.

BBC Radio 1Xtra Talks with Richie Brave is going on a live tour and will be making stops in Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Leeds over the coming months.

A spokesperson for the Commons said: “Under Standing Order 43, Dawn Butler was required to withdraw by the temporary Deputy Speaker.

“Standing Order 45 requires that MPs ordered to withdraw in this way should ‘forthwith withdraw from the precincts of the House’, and this does extend to the parliamentary bars. If Ms Butler has any concerns about how the rules were communicated to her, we would encourage her to talk to us.”

The Labour Party has been approached for comment.