As it happened: Boris Johnson questioned about partygate by Privileges Committee

The Windsor Framework vote is expected to interrupt the hearing. Boris Johnson and other MPs will leave the committee at around 2.30pm to vote in the Commons. Johnson will vote against Rishi Sunak's bill, like fellow ex-PM Liz Truss.

The Labour chair Harriet Harman - the mother of the House - has started proceedings. Boris Johnson has a slightly glum look on his face. Harman explains that the committee is not deciding whether the gatherings broke lockdown rules, but that Johnson knowingly lied to the House of Commons when he said that the rules and guidance had been followed. Harman says this hearing goes to the importance of trust in politics.

Harriet Harman says that committee will be establishing:

- What rules were in force at the relevant time

- Boris Johnson's knowledge of that guidance and rules

- Boris Johnson's attendance at gatherings, which were not socially distant and where fixed penalty notices were issued

Harriet Harman says that Boris Johnson mentioned Covid guidance and rules in the House of Commons, however this is looking at three specific instances - 1 December 2021, 8 December 2021 and 30 May 2022.

Johnson said:

1 December: “All guidance was followed completely in Number 10. I have been repeatedly assured that there was no party and that no Covid rules have been broken.”

8 December: ““I apologise for the impression that has been given that staff at Downing Street are taking this less than seriously. I am sickened and furious about that. But I repeat what I have said before, that I have been repeatedly assured that no rules were broken.”

To a question of whether there was a party in November: “No, but I’m sure whatever happened the guidance and rules were followed at all times."

30 May: “When I told this House that the guidance had been followed at all times, it was what I believed to be true. It was certainly the case when I was present at gatherings to wish staff farewell, and my attendance, brief as it was, has not been found to be outside the rules. But clearly this was not the case at gatherings after I had left, and ones where I wasn't in the building.”

Boris Johnson has been sworn in and is making his opening statement. He says "hand on heart" he did not lie to the House of Commons.

He says there was a "general belief in No10 that rules and guidance were being complied with ... it was that belief that governed what I said in the house."

He adds: "As soon as it was clear I was wrong ... I came to the House and corrected the record." Johnson says he was "deeply shocked" when fines were issued.

Boris Johnson has said the only evidence which shows he knowingly mislead Parliament, comes from his former special adviser Dominic Cummings. You remember, the one who drove to Durham after getting Covid symptoms during lockdown and then drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight. Since then, Cummings and Johnson have had a huge falling out.

In his opening statement, Johnson said: "If there was a rulebreaking event at No10 it would have unquestionably been escalated to me. We all knew how important it was to maintain public confidence in the fight against Covid, that we should do what we were asking the public to do. There was only one exception and that was the testimony of Dominic Cummings, which is unsupported by any documentary evidence and plainly cannot be relied upon. He has every motive to lie."

Boris Johnson has left the Privileges Committee after a vote was called, with MPs expected to reconvene in 15 minutes.

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Michael Fabricant filed past the former prime minister as they left the room, with the latter leaning in to say something inaudible to Johnson.

Boris Johnson has resumed his evidence at the Privileges Committee. Johnson says that if the committee accuses him of misleading Parliament, then it also accuses all the civil servants and MPs who were in 10 Downing Street were lying as well.

Boris Johnson has said it was “nonsense” to suggest that it should have been obvious to him that rules were being broken in No 10 because of the pictures of him at events.

To suggest there were “illicit events in No 10 while allowing these events to be immortalised by an official photographer is staggeringly implausible”.

He said: “It seems to be the view of the committee and sadly many members of the public that they show me attending rule-breaking parties where no one was social distancing. They show nothing of the kind.

“They show me giving a few words of thanks at a work event for a departing colleague. They show me with my red box passing on the way to another meeting or heading back into my flat to carry on working, often late into the night.

“They show a few people standing together – as permitted by the guidance – where full social distancing is not possible and where mitigating measures are taken.

“They show events which I was never fined for attending.”

Johnson has said: "Everyone [in No10] was operating with the same understanding of the rules and guidance." He says this proves that he did not lie to the Commons. The evidence the Privileges Committee published earlier today appears to contradict this.