Boris Johnson was today ordered to hand a vast cache of evidence to the probe into whether he lied to Parliament over Partygate.
The Privileges Committee demanded diaries for the eight days he attended Covid lockdown-busting gatherings in Downing Street - which led to more than 100 fines from police.
MPs also ordered photos, internal notes, the PM’s briefing packs, e-mails, resignation statements and door logs - and warned the list could be expanded further at a later date.
Powerful chair Harriet Harman, the Labour veteran, set an August 15 deadline for No10 to serve up the documents - before Boris Johnson hands his resignation to the Queen on September 6.
And she ordered the nation’s top civil servant to let her committee visit 10 Downing Street, to “inspect” where the parties happened.
In correspondence released today, Ms Harman stressed she was not seeking to “attribute blame” to staff or former staff. She added witnesses who “wish to remain anonymous” can give evidence about whether the Prime Minister lied.
The Committee is investigating whether Boris Johnson committed contempt of Parliament by misleading MPs over what he knew about No10 parties.
Seven MPs, including four Tories, are probing the PM’s claims that “the rules were followed at all times” and he was “repeatedly assured there was no party”.
Mr Johnson's allies have moaned the probe will be a "kangaroo court" and it will continue despite a new Tory leader being unveiled on September 5.
Hearings with witnesses - who could include the PM and wife Carrie - are due to begin in September and insiders believe the committee will not report back until October or November at the earliest.
Boris Johnson could avoid any sanction from the committee if he chose to quit as an MP.
Boris Johnson's deputy spokesman refused to say if the PM will remain an MP long enough to be sanctioned. The No10 employee said: “I can’t comment on questions beyond his tenure as Prime Minister.”
The Privileges Committee can find MPs in contempt of Parliament for “deliberately misleading” the Commons - such as War Secretary John Profumo who denied an affair in 1963 - and recommend they are suspended.
Investigations are rare. The last MP to face any sanction was Tory Justin Tomlinson in 2016, and the last investigated for misleading MPs was Labour ’s Stephen Byers in 2006. He gave an inaccurate answer “inadvertently” so there was no contempt.
Previous chairman Chris Bryant, who recused himself, has said the MPs will only have to prove Boris Johnson "knowingly" misled Parliament, not that he deliberately did so.
Scotland Yard concluded its probe into Partygate in May after handing 126 fines to 83 people over at least eight events in No10 and Whitehall.
Boris Johnson was given one fine for his birthday party on 19 June 2020.
A No10 spokesman said: “We have recently received those letters and requests, which we will now take a proper look at.
“As we have said before we will assist the committee in their inquiries.
“Once we have had the time to look at the letters and requests we will set out our response to the committee in due course.”
Full list of documents being demanded by August 15
- PM diaries for the following days:
- 15 May 2020
- 20 May 2020
- 19 June 2020
- 13 November 2020
- 27 November 2020
- 15 December 2020
- 17 December 2020
- 14 January 2021
- Event email invites
- All email/electronic (including WhatsApp) invites for all events included in the attached timeline.
- No. 10 Entry Logs for the following days:
- 19 June 2020
- 13 November 2020
- Briefings
- All Prime Minister briefing packs for all HoC appearances between 1 December 2021 and 25 May 2022, including Urgent Questions, Statements, and Prime Minister’s Questions, where briefing related to the matter referred to the Privileges Committee; including details of the clearance process and who cleared the briefing packs in each instance.
- Electronic diary schedulers for PMQs briefing sessions
- Evidence of who attended the briefing sessions ahead of PMQs appearances.
- Internal No. 10
- Any notes or evidence of any inquiries that were made by the Prime Minister’s office/Mr Johnson, particularly on 30 November 2021, following the publication of articles by the Daily Mirror on 30 November and 1 December 2020, (online and print), entitled “Boris Johnson 'broke Covid lockdown rules' with Downing Street parties at Xmas” and “Boris party broke covid rules”.
- Resignation emails
- Any resignation emails, or correspondence relating to the resignation (including WhatsApp messages), of No.10 staff.
- Advice and assurances
- All advice (including legal advice) and assurances received by Mr Johnson, or commissioned by the Prime Minister’s office, relating to the events included in the attached timeline.
- No.10 photographer
- All photos for days where Mr Johnson attended any event included in the timeline, including those by the PM’s official photographer Andrew Parsons.
- Covid status of No. 10 staff
- Information on the number of No 10 staff off work with Covid on the dates of each of the events on the timeline.
- Civil servants disciplined
- Number of civil servants disciplined in relation to any event included in the timeline, broken down by grade.
- Documents deleted
- Any documents in any of the above categories known to have existed which was subsequently deleted.
