Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg backs up Boris

It was rare to find anyone willing to stand up and defend Boris Johnson in parliament this afternoon. But cometh the hour, cometh the Mogg as the Honourable Member for the eighteenth century arose to deliver his best defence of his former boss. Jacob Rees-Mogg described it as a ‘deliberate attempt to take the most unfavourable interpretation that the committee can of Mr Johnson’s activities.’ The Tory backbencher jested that the panel of MPs of acting like ‘an Elon Musk particle’ inserted into ‘Mr Johnson’s brain’ and ridiculed them for refusing to allow criticism in the chamber:

For some reason the Privileges Committee thinks it’s in communist China, and that we must kowtow, and then they go on to say that Mr Johnson was “complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of committee’ without one shred of evidence”.

Strong stuff. You can watch the full speech below: