Britain’s former prime minister Boris Johnson returned to centre stage on a day of high-stakes developments that could shape the future of UK politics, saying he did not mislead parliament over rule-breaking parties during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Johnson – who was ousted by his own ruling Conservative party in 2022 amid scandals over money, ethics and judgment – mounted a bullish defence in front of a committee of fellow lawmakers whose findings could lead to him losing his seat if he were to be found guilty of lying.
At stake are the chances of Johnson staging a comeback at a time when the current prime minister and Tory leader, Rishi Sunak, faces significant opposition from rightwing elements of his own party and polling shows the opposition Labour party in the ascendant.
But while Johnson attempted during his evidence to draw Sunak into the Partygate saga, the prime minister overcame a separate hurdle as he won the backing of parliament for a key element of a reworked post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, despite opposition from some of his MPs.
Why was Johnson back in the headlines on Wednesday?
A UK parliament committee is investigating whether Johnson intentionally or recklessly misled fellow MPs in a series of statements about gatherings in 10 Downing Street during 2020 and 2021 when much of the rest of Britain was forced to stay at home.
Johnson was previously fined by police for attending an event to celebrate his birthday in Downing Street in June 2020, making him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office.
“I’m here to say to you, hand on heart, that I did not lie to the house,” said Johnson, who has accused the committee, which contains MPs from his own party but is chaired by a Labour MP, of bias.
Before hours of testimony in which Johnson’s patience wore thin, including during questioning by fellow Conservatives, the committee published 110 pages of evidence, showing that some Downing Street officials said Johnson must have known parties had taken place despite his denials.
There was also new evidence from a senior civil servant who said he had never given Johnson any assurances that Covid rules had been followed in Downing Street.
Why does it matter?
Any censure of Johnson could be terminal for what are widely believed to be his hopes of staging a comeback to replace Sunak, who stewarded Britain’s economy as Johnson’s chancellor but has never been forgiven by Johnson supporters for being among the first to wield the knife during his ouster.
The rehashing of the meaning and wording of lockdown rules comes as Sunak has faced a mini-rebellion from within his own ranks over a deal he reached with the EU to end years of wrangling in a key area of dispute which has dogged the aftermath of Britain’s exit from the bloc.
In a crucial vote on Wednesday, Sunak won the backing of parliament for his deal – aimed a handing a veto of sorts to devolved lawmakers in Northern Ireland when it comes to the application of new EU laws in a part of the UK where a delicate political balancing act around local power sharing has had to be walked on account of a divided political history.
Sunak won the vote by 515 to 29, managing to contain the size of the rebellion but with a substantial number of Conservatives abstaining. However, there was opposition from those he most wanted to win over – some hardline Eurosceptics in his own party and members of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party (DUP), who are still refusing to re-enter power sharing there with other parties.
Notably, others who voted against Sunak were his two immediate predecessors as prime minister and Tory leader: Liz Truss and Johnson.
What happens next?
Johnson’s efforts to rebuild his power base in the Conservative party and chart a course back to Downing Street could suffer a serious setback if the parliamentary committee he faced on Wednesday decides that he did mislead parliament, with added grounds to determine if his action was intentional or reckless.
Sanctions range from a written apology to a suspension from the Commons for a specific period, opening up the possibility that voters in his own constituency could initiate a byelection.
However, any termination of Johnson’s political career would only give Sunak some respite from a whole catalogue of challenges he faces, most importantly of all on the economy. On Wednesday morning, data showed the UK’s inflation rate had jumped unexpectedly last month, with the cost of living rising faster than in most other advanced economies.
During his evidence, Johnson also attempted to draw Sunak deeper into the Partygate scandal by suggesting that if Covid rules had been broken in Downing Street, then it should have been “obvious”, too, to the current prime minister, who was also fined for attending an event there during the pandemic.
