Boris Johnson: MPs conclude ex-Prime Minister deliberately misled Commons over Partygate

MPs have concluded Boris Johnson deliberately misled the House of Commons over the Partygate scandal - and recommended he should be suspended from Parliament for 90 days had he not already resigned.

The Privileges Committee which investigated the former Prime Minister decided he had committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament both by denying lockdown gatherings at Number 10 - and for being “complicit” in what it called a “campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee” which had produced the report.

In a furious response, Johnson branded the report’s conclusion “deranged” and said the Privileges Committee was “beneath contempt”. The ex-PM already stepped down as an MP last week after seeing an advance copy.

His resignation means he will escape being suspended from Parliament as recommended by the report - but the committee has gone a step further and suggested Johnson should not receive the pass granting access to Parliament which is normally given to former MPs.

What did the committee look at?

The committee - made up of seven MPs, four Conservative, two Labour, and one from the SNP - was asked in the spring of 2022 to examine claims Johnson lied to the House of Commons about his knowledge of gatherings at Downing Street that had breached lockdown rules in place at the time.

He was at the time investigated by the Metropolitan Police and fined for attending an event to mark his 56th birthday. His wife Carrie Johnson and the then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak were also fined.

Giving evidence to the committee in March this year, Johnson strongly denied intentionally misleading Parliament. He said that he “hand on heart” did not lie to the Commons, insisting he had told MPs “no rules had been broken” at Number 10 in good faith - because he genuinely believed that to be the case.

He also argued that all events he attended were “essential” for work purposes - even though the Privileges Committee pointed to alcohol bottles being present in photographs taken of the gatherings. “Anyone who claims there was partying in lockdown simply does not know what they are talking about,” Johnson emphatically stated in his evidence.

What did the committee find?

The committee’s report - released this morning (15 June) - concluded Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the gatherings. It said some of Johnson’s denials and explanations were so disingenuous that they were by their very nature deliberate attempts to mislead the committee and the House”.

The committee decided that the former Prime Minister misled the Commons in five different ways. It said he had done this by:

• Claiming Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in Number 10 on four separate occasions
• Failing to tell the House “about his own knowledge of the gatherings where the rules or guidance had been broken”
• Saying he relied on “repeated reassurances” that rules had not been broken
• Insisting on waiting for Sue Gray’s report to be published before he could answer questions in the House, when he had “personal knowledge which he did not reveal”
• Claiming that rules and guidance had been followed while he was present at gatherings in Number 10 when he “purported to correct the record” in May 2022

In addition, the committee strongly criticised Johnson for making a public statement about its report after seeing a preliminary copy. It said this was “in breach of the express requirements of confidentiality” and in itself “a very serious contempt”.

It recommended that had Johnson not already stepped down as an MP, he should have been suspended from the Commons for 90 days. The committee also urged Parliament to deny him an entry pass that would allow him to access the Westminster estate in future - as is usually given to former MPs.

It also considered whether Johnson should have been expelled from the Commons altogether - but only two of the seven MPs on the committee thought that was appropriate.

How has Johnson responded?

Johnson has lashed out at the Privileges Committee following the report’s full publication. He branded its findings a “deranged conclusion” and claimed the committee itself was beneath contempt. You can read his statement in full here.

The former Prime Minister also claimed the MPs’ 14-month investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”. Previously, he attacked the committee as a “kangaroo court” and accused one of its members - Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin - of hypocrisy after the Guido Fawkes website reported he’d also broken Covid lockdown rules by attending a drinks party for his wife’s birthday in December 2020.

What’s the other reaction been?

Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said the report showed Johnson was “not only a law-breaker but a liar” and should apologise to the British public. She compared him to a “pound-shop” Donald Trump by trying “to discredit anybody who criticises his actions”.

The Liberal Democrats want the government to strip Johnson of the £115,000 annual allowance available to former Prime Ministers to run their office.

Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: “This damning report should be the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson’s political career. Rishi Sunak must cut off (his) allowance to stop him milking the public purse for his own personal gain”.

Separately, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK campaign group says Johnson should never be allowed to stand for any form of public office again.

Its spokesman David Garfinkel added: “Johnson has shown no remorse. Instead he lied to our faces when he told us that he’d done all he could to protect our loved ones. His fall from grace must serve as a lesson to other politicians to act with honesty and to serve the public as a whole – that is the only positive that can come from this”.

But some of Johnson’s allies in Parliament have come strongly to his defence. Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith said the report’s conclusions were “spiteful” and “vindictive”, while another Tory - Mark Jenkinson - suggested it was “gross overreach which undermines the integrity of the committee and of Parliament”.

What happens next?

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt confirmed that MPs would debate the report on Monday - and given a free vote on its findings. That means Rishi Sunak will not ask Conservative backbenchers to oppose them.

Another close Johnson ally, former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, warned her colleagues not to back the report. She said: “Any Conservative MP who would (support it) is fundamentally not a Conservative and will be held to account by members and the public. Deselections may follow. It’s serious”.

Meanwhile it was announced this afternoon that the by-election to replace Johnson in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency would take place on 20th July. A second by-election triggered by the resignation of another Johnson ally - Nigel Adams - will be held in Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire on the same day.