No. 10 wants Chris Grayling to chair the Intelligence and Security Committee - to stop it forming?

[muriel_volestrangler]

OK, stop laughing, this should be serious - they want the most incompetent ex-cabinet minister in recent memory to take charge of an important (considering, for instance, interference in elections) committee:

Boris Johnson has reportedly planned to appoint Grayling to the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee.[127][128][129] Although the Prime Minister appoints the Committee's members in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, he has no power to appoint its chair as, by law, the chair is elected by the members from their own ranks.[130] Shadow Defence Secretary, Nia Griffith (Labour Party), said appointing Grayling would "make a mockery" of the committee.[127][129] Acting Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, claimed the appointment of Grayling would be a "power grab" by Johnson and Dominic Cummings designed to avoid accountibility.[127] Some Conservative MPs have also criticised the possible appointment.[128]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Grayling#Chair_of_the_Intelligence_and_Security_Committee

As you can see, he has all-party opposition. It is possible that Cummings (or Johnson, or some other choleric turd) is doing this just to stop the committee from meeting at all:

Downing Street said on Monday it could not comment on the Russia report or its evidence until it was published. The cross-party committee finished the report in October 2019 but, ahead of December’s general election, Johnson refused to release it. After the election, he cleared the report for publication in principle, but doing so would require the ISC to be reconstituted.

The committee is yet to be formed amid growing speculation that there is a row about who will chair it. Downing Street has indicated it wants the former transport secretary Chris Grayling to do so.

But No 10 needs the Conservative nominees to the nine-strong committee to agree to support Grayling because the opposition minority want to vote for somebody else. In law the appointment of the chair is a matter for the committee. As a result the long-awaited document is still yet to be released, prompting complaints in Westminster and accusations from Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats of an attempted cover-up.

“We increasingly think the real reason this is all being held up is because of No 10,” said an SNP source. The Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said the delay was “utterly reprehensible”.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/22/boris-johnson-theres-may-ignored-claims-russia-had-likely-hold-over-donald-trump-ex-spy-christopher-steele-claims?__twitter_impression=true

[Soph0571]

1. It is more than possible. It is the actual plan

They will stop at nothing to stop the Russia report getting out. Messing with national security is certainly a price they would be willing to play.