Guto Harri has suggested the MPs who pronounced Boris Johnson misled parliament have deprived him of a livelihood.

Appearing on BBC Question Time, Harri, a former Johnson aide, indicated he thought the privileges committee was not “beyond reproach”, citing the fact one-time Labour leader chaired the group.

Harri argued the “quasi-judicial process” was beyond the remit of the Commons – a talking point put forward by a number of Johnson loyalists.

But this has been countered repeatedly by the argument that the Conservative Party holds a majority of MPs on the committee, and Johnson has been represented by Lord Pannick, one of the country’s leading lawyers, at the public’s expense.

On Thursday, the privileges committee found Johnson deliberately misled parliament over partygate.

It recommended a 90-day suspension for the ex-prime minister, which he will escape after resigning as an MP, and said he should not receive a pass granting access to parliament which is normally given to former members.

Johnson has been making serious money from speeches since being forced out of Downing Street last year – with one entry in the register of members’ interests in February stating he was paid almost £2.5 million for speeches he hadn’t even made yet.

Question Time’s first debate on Thursday was over whether Johnson’s political career was “dead and buried”.

Harri said: “If you can deprive people of their livelihood, you need to be beyond reproach.

“And the idea that the former leader of the Laboor party can decide essentially on the process and the outcome that drives out a Conservative prime minister from parliament for me, whether you like Boris or not, does not look like due process.”

On the panel, SNP MP David Linden claimed Johnson has voted just three times in the Commons and earned £5 million since he left office. “Boris Johnson probably isn’t going to go hungry as a result of leaving parliament,” he added.

It’s the latest defence of Johnson from loyalists.

Lord Stewart Jackson, a former Conservative MP and another ally of Johnson, suggested the devastating report is “revenge for Brexit”.

Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith told the BBC that the report was “vindictive, spiteful and an over-reach”, adding: “90 days and taking their pass off them is the equivalent of putting somebody in the stocks and touring them round the country.”

Former Cabinet minister Simon Clarke said “this punishment is absolutely extraordinary to the point of sheer vindictiveness”.

Johnson was said to have deliberately misled MPs with his partygate denials and accused of being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation, with the former prime minister hitting out at the “deranged conclusion”.