Chris Grayling ‘coup’ exposes lack of intelligence – The Yorkshire Post says

A respected former chair of the Defence Select committe, Dr Lewis – and his colleagues – now intend to publish the long-awaited report over Russian interference in UK politics in 2017 next week.

Further evidence that the select committees, and their independence, invariably represent the best of Parliament and politics, there’s no guarantee that this would have happened if it was not for Dr Lewis breaking ranks and opposing Mr Grayling’s nomination with the help of Labour and the SNP.

That he has now been denied the Tory whip is not his fault; it merely reflects how badly this whole episode has been misjudged by Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, his chief aide, after they left this committee in limbo when its work is crucial to overseeing the intelligence agencies.

To even propose Mr Grayling, the most inept Minister of modern times, and for Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg to attribute delays to the process to the need to recruit the best candidates, was, frankly, an insult when the ex-Transport Secretary had little, or no, experience, of intelligence or security matters.

To then try to impose Mr Grayling as chair compounded matters. And to punish Dr Lewis looks petty.

That said, Parliament has, asserted itself and the Intelligence and Security Committee, and therefore the UK’s national security, now appears to be in much safer hands.

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