Petition to make lying in House of Commons a criminal offence reaches 50,000 signatures

"Truth in the House of Commons is every bit as important as truth in a court of law and breaches should be treated in a similar way"

There is a reason that only 19 per cent of the British public trust ministers and 17 per cent trust politicians. Now a petition has surfaced that calls for lying in the House of Commons to be a criminal offence. It argues that legislation should be introduced to make lying illegal in the Commons because "truth in the House of Commons is every bit as important as truth in a court of law." It has already racked up 55,000 signatures at the time of writing. The petition reads: "The Government should introduce legislation to make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence. This would mean that all MPs, including Ministers, would face a serious penalty for knowingly making false statements in the House of Commons, as is the case in a court of law. "We believe false statements have been made in the House and, although regarded as a 'serious offence' in principle, options to challenge this are extremely limited as accusing a member of lying is forbidden in the House. "Truth in the House of Commons is every bit as important as truth in a court of law and breaches should be treated in a similar way to perjury and carry similar penalties." The petition comes after MP Dawn Butler accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of lying in the House of Commons, an accusation that got her kicked out of the chamber after she refused to withdraw it. Related links:

• Starmer says Butler was right to call PM a liar, but was rightly removed from Parliament
• Dawn Butler says she would call Prime Minister a liar in Parliament again
• Dawn Butler removed from House of Commons for calling the PM a liar