The Guardian view on Julian Lewis: better a maverick than a poodle

MPs were right to defy Downing Street by choosing the Tory rightwinger to chair the intelligence and security committee Julian Lewis and Chris Grayling are a pair of dyed-in-the-wool rightwing Conservative leaver MPs. On issues like Brexit, their politics are as indistinguishable as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Yet Mr Lewis’s surprise victory over Mr Grayling in the election to chair parliament’s intelligence and security committee on Wednesday is not a plague-on-both-your-Tory-houses result. On the contrary, it is the sort of outcome that even parliament’s most trenchant leftwingers and remainers could scarce forbear to cheer. For Mr Lewis is a rightwing maverick, while Mr Grayling is a rightwing poodle. Mr Lewis’s win is one in the eye against No 10, the whips and the payroll vote. It should unite all those on every side of politics, and of all parties, who want MPs in parliament, not Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, to make the decisions that matter.The committee was first set up in 1994 by a Conservative prime minister, John Major, who respected parliament. Its powers were enhanced in 2013 by another Conservative, David Cameron, who shared that respect. Over the years it has become more confident as a result. Boris Johnson, by contrast, has little respect for parliament, no desire for accountability, despises checks and balances, and is vindictive towards those who disagree with him, especially on Brexit. His attitude to the committee has been the polar opposite of respectful, not least because it was chaired, until 2019, by the independent and scrupulous former attorney general Dominic Grieve, a staunch remainer. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/16/the-guardian-view-on-julian-lewis-better-a-maverick-than-a-poodle #conservatives #politics #chris_grayling #house_of_commons #uk_security_and_counter-terrorism #russia #boris_johnson