A DATE has been set for Boris Johnson to face MPs over the partygate scandal.
The former prime minister will be questioned over whether he misled parliament by the cross-party Privileges Committee on Wednesday, March 22, at 2pm. It has not yet been announced which other individuals will be questioned.
The committee released an update to its inquiry earlier this month in which it said the evidence strongly suggested it would have been "obvious" to Johnson that Covid rules were being broken at Downing Street gatherings he attended.
In April 2022, following a police probe and an investigation by civil servant Sue Gray, it was confirmed a string of rule-breaking gatherings had taken place in Number 10 and around Whitehall during the pandemic, with 126 fines issued in total including to Johnson, his wife Carrie and then chancellor Rishi Sunak.
But it is what Johnson said in Parliament about the gatherings that the committee - made up of seven MPs - is looking at.
Johnson released a statement claiming the inquiry’s interim report showed he was being “vindicated” as he raised concern about investigator Sue Gray’s move to Keir Starmer’s office.
But the committee said: “The evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings.
“There is evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules.”
The Privileges Committee has said it will consider why Johnson told MPs that no guidance had been broken “when he knew what the guidance was and was in attendance at gatherings where the guidance was breached”.
It will examine claims by the then-prime minister in December 2021 that “all guidance was followed completely in No. 10” and “the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”.
The committee will also look into “why he failed to tell the House about the gatherings at which he had been present”.
