BORIS Johnson has been found to have lied to the House of Commons on numerous occasions about Covid rule-breaking in No 10 during lockdown.
The long-awaited Privileges Committee report into whether the former PM, who resigned last week, was published on Thursday morning.
In it, the report outlined the five different ways in which Johnson misled the Commons about partygate – we’ve rounded them up here.
- Claiming that Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in Number 10 on four separate occasions
- Failing to tell the House “about his own knowledge of the gatherings where the rules or guidance had been broken”
- Saying he relied on “repeated assurances” that rules had not been broken
- Insisting on Sue Gray’s report to be published before he could answer questions in the House, when he had “personal knowledge which he did not reveal”
- By claiming that rules and guidance had been followed while he was present at gatherings in Number 10 when he “purported to correct the record” in May 2022
The committee also found Johnson had been “disingenuous” when giving evidence to them in six “ways which amount to misleading”.
In terms of the punishment Johnson would have faced were he still a sitting MP, the Privileges Committee concluded it would have recommended a 90-day suspension had he not already resigned.
During discussion of the report’s final findings, the SNP’s Allan Dorans and Labour’s Yvonne Fovargue backed a stronger sanction, recommending that Johnson be expelled from the House of Commons.
Although imposing these specific sanctions is not possible given the former PM’s resignation, the report recommended that he be denied a former members’ pass – barring him from the Houses of Parliament.
MPs will be given a chance to vote on this recommendation with this expected to take place on Monday.
Johnson’s full response to the report can be read HERE.
