Parliament ‘Partygate’ report says Boris Johnson lied about lockdown parties
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LONDON — An investigation by British lawmakers concluded that Boris Johnson, while serving as prime minister, “deliberately misled” the House of Commons in answering questions about a series of alcohol-fueled parties at 10 Downing Street during the strict pandemic lockdowns ordered by his own government. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. ArrowRight A report released on Thursday by Parliament’s Privileges Committee, which has been investigating Johnson for a year, was scathing, finding that the former prime minister knowingly misled Parliament not once but twice.
His fellow lawmakers also castigated Johnson as being “complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the Committee.”
After seeing a draft of the committee report last week, Johnson resigned from the House of Commons “with immediate effect.”
Johnson was the first British leader in recent history to be found to have intentionally misled his colleagues. Telling lies in the House of Commons is considered a serious, potentially career-ending transgression that can lead to suspension or expulsion from Westminster.
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If Johnson had not resigned from Parliament last week, the committee was prepared to recommend a suspension of 90 days, a remarkable slap-down, which could have led to his being recalled as a lawmaker.
Johnson’s resignation preempted such a punishment while also triggering a special election in his constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
In a blistering 1,700-word statement on Thursday, Johnson called the report “a charade” and its conclusions “a load of complete tripe.”
Johnson has maintained “I did not lie” and said he was “bewildered and appalled” at being “forced out.”
“I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt underway, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result,” he wrote.
Johnson’s assault is undercut by the fact that the committee has a majority of lawmakers from his own Conservative Party.
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In its report, the Privileges Committee also recommended that Johnson should be denied the Westminster pass that allows former lawmakers easy, clubby access to Parliament after they leave office.
If such a ban is forthcoming, a colleague could still sign Johnson in as a guest, but it is a remarkable rebuke and a sign of how far he has fallen, that a former prime minister and former leader of the Conservative Party, who won an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons in 2019, should now be so shunned.
Johnson’s premiership was undone by the scandal known as “Partygate” — a string of government gatherings that took place when pandemic restrictions barred most socializing and even kept people from funerals. Johnson himself was fined by police for attending one party — a birthday celebration hosted by his wife — and so was current prime minister Rishi Sunak.
But it wasn’t just the parties that got Johnson in trouble — it was his answers to Parliament about whether the parties happened at all and, if so, whether he knew they broke the rules.
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Reaction from the opposition parties was blunt.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, called Johnson “a liar and law-breaker."
“He’s treated the public with utter disdain,” Davey tweeted.
In its lengthy report, the Privileges Committee wrote, “we have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the house Mr Johnson committed a serious contempt. The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government.”
The committee continued: “There is no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the house. He misled the house on an issue of the greatest importance to the house and to the public, and did so repeatedly.”
After the parties at 10 Downing and Chequers, the countryside residence of the prime minister, were revealed by the press — and there were at least 16 and counting — Johnson first told Parliament that “the guidance was followed completely.”
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He later said that some guidelines may been breached, but that he thought the gatherings were appropriate work events allowed under the rules.
On Thursday, Johnson said there was not a “shred of evidence” that he knowingly lied, adding adding the committee’s “argument can be boiled down to: ‘Look at this picture – that’s Boris Johnson with a glass in his hand. He must have known that the event was illegal. Therefore he lied.’”
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Source: The Washington Post
