Boris Johnson has insisted he did not lie to Parliament when he told MPs in the House of Commons that Covid guidance was followed at all times in Downing Street - despite the Met Police going on to issue hundreds of fines for events that took place in government buildings during the pandemic.
The former prime minister’s defence was today scrutinised by MPs from across the House sitting on the Privileges Committee, which has been tasked with uncovering whether or not Mr Johnson deliberately misled Parliament with his statements.
Mr Johnson has said that he accepts he misled MPs but denies doing so “recklessly”, insisting he denied lockdown breaches “in good faith” on the advice of officials, who turned out to be wrong.
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The debate became heated at times as Harriet Harman, the Labour chairwoman of the Tory-majority committee, asked whether he could see why colleagues were “a bit dismayed about the flimsy nature” of the assurances he was given, and senior Tory Sir Bernard Jenkin asked why he failed to take “proper advice” about what to say to Parliament - a statement Mr Johnson angrily rejected as “complete nonsense”.
Mr Johnson defended various rule-breaking events during the coronavirus pandemic, including his birthday party for which he was fined, a number of farewell gatherings for departing colleagues and a garden event in which he thanked members of staff, as being “necessary for work purposes”.
The former prime minister could be suspended and face a possible by-election if he is found to have committed a contempt of Parliament. Here's a round up of what he told MPs on the committee as he gave his evidence today, in a session that lasted more than three hours.
'Hand on heart, I did not lie to the House'
In his opening statement, Mr Johnson reiterated his argument that he did now knowingly mislead the House.
He admitted that gatherings did take place in Downing Street that went "past the point" that they were necessary for work purposes, and apologised for it happening under his watch.
"That was wrong," he said. "I bitterly regret it, I understand public anger and I continue to apologise for what happened on my watch."
Mr Johnson said that statements he made on December 1 and December 8 in 2021, in which he told MPs guidance had been followed in Downing Street, were what he believed to be true at the time.
He told the committee: "I am here to say to you, hand on heart, that I did not lie to the House. When those statements were made they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time."
The former prime minister told today's committee hearing: “I come before you this afternoon in full confidence that you will be impartial and that you will look at the evidence and you will conclude that I did not wittingly or recklessly mislead Parliament. There’s not a shred of evidence to suggest that I did and I hope that you will exonerate me – and I think that you should exonerate me – of any contempt whatever.”
'I misremembered line that had been put out to the media'
Addressing claims that he was told not to say that guidance had been followed in the House and did so anyway, Mr Johnson said he misremembered the line that had already been briefed to the media.
He told the committee: “When I said the guidance had been followed completely (at) No 10, which is actually what I said, I was misremembering the line that had already been put out to the media about this event, which was ‘Covid rules were followed at all times’. But you’ve got to understand that I didn’t think there was any real distinction from the public’s point of view in the rules and the guidance."
He continued: “Let me put it this way: I didn’t think the public would make any… that they would expect us to follow the guidance as much as the rules. So even though I had said something slightly different, I still believed it was true.”
Asked why he did not correct the record afterwards, Mr Johnson replied: “I didn’t think there was any appreciable difference because it was our job to follow the guidance as much as it was to follow the rules. My view is that I believe we were following the guidance.”
'If anyone thinks that I was 'partying' during lockdown they are completely wrong'
Mr Johnson said that he understood that photos of work events at Downing Street may make them look like they were for social purposes. But he told MPs: "If anyone thinks that I was 'partying' during lockdown they are completely wrong."
Mr Johnson repeatedly told the committee that events in which he made speeches for departing staff, or thanked his colleagues for their work during the pandemic, were an essential part of his job.
He also dismissed claims that the garden gathering on May 20 in 2020, in which colleagues were told to 'bring their own booze', was a "large social event".
"People who say that we were partying in lockdown simply do not know what they are talking about," he told the committee. "People who say that was a purely social gathering are quite wrong. My purpose there was to thank staff, to motivate them."
'It was my job to thank staff for what they had done'
Mr Johnson insisted that the events he attended were absolutely necessary for work purposes.
He told the committee that although the public may view the numerous farewell events for departing staff to be social events and non-essential, he did not agree. "I will believe 'til the day I die that it was my job to thank staff for what they had done," he said.
He added that he "did not know at the time" that some of these events later escalated beyond what was lawful once he had departed.
Referring to one of the leaving parties in November 2020, which there are photos of showing people standing around a table without two meters between them, Mr Johnson said it was essential because two senior members of staff were about to leave in "acrimonious circumstances" and it was important for him to "give reassurance" to colleagues. He said he believed the event was "absolutely essential for work purposes".
Asked whether such gatherings were "so critical to the function of government that it was permissible to hold them even if they couldn't be socially distanced", Mr Johnson said he agreed that they were.
Mr Johnson said colleagues avoided physical contact and 'didn't touch each other's pens' or pass stuff to each other, but admitted that at one gathering drinks were passed around. "This is guidance, I'm not going to pretend that it was enforced rigidly. But that's what the guidance provides for," he told MPs.
'To say we would have held illicit events while allowing them to be photographed is staggeringly implausible'
Mr Johnson hit out at the idea that it would have been 'obvious' that events were not compliant with Covid guidance at the time, pointing to the use of a Downing Street photographer at several of the gatherings in question.
He said the claim that he must have known at the time that the events were non-compliant was "nonsense" and the idea that photos show him attending lockdown-breaking parties was wrong. "They show nothing of the kind," he told the committee.
"To say that we would have held illicit events in No 10 while allowing them to be immortalised by an official photographer is staggeringly implausible," he said.
Birthday bash was 'a perfectly proper thing to do'
Mr Johnson claimed that the birthday gathering that earned him a fine was "a perfectly proper thing to do" and “reasonably necessary for work purposes”, despite it being attended by his wife and a designer working on his flat.
The former PM, his wife Carrie and then-chancellor Rishi Sunak all received £50 fixed-penalty notices from Scotland Yard for the 56th birthday bash in the Cabinet Room.
"It never occurred to me, or I think the current prime minister, that the event was not in compliance with the rules and the guidance," he told the committee, adding that there was no singing and no one ate cake.
Pressed on why he believed it was necessary when some of the attendees were not even taking part in work meetings, he said: “I thought it was reasonably necessary for work purposes because I was standing at my desk, surrounded by officials who had been asked to come and wish me a happy birthday – I’d only recently recovered from an illness, from Covid, and it seemed to me to be a perfectly proper thing to do."
He added: "It is one of the peculiarities of No 10 that the PM and his family live in the same building and my understanding of the rules is that the family is entitled to use that building and use every part of that building".
Labour MP Yvonne Fovargue asked if it was not obvious that the guidance was being breached, seeing as some of the people in attendance did not need to be there for work. "No", Mr Johnson replied, adding that it was so "unobvious" that the press office even briefed the Times newspaper on the event.
"I had no sense while this event was taking place and later on, at any time, that this event was in contravention of the rules or guidance, he said.
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