Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him, according to a damning official inquiry that threatens to further tear apart the Conservative party.
The long-awaited report by the privileges committee said the former prime minister would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not quit in rage at its conclusions last week.
The original suspension was due to be 20 days but the committee said his attempts to intimidate it would have increased the punishment.
He was also found to have knowingly misled the committee, breached Commons rules by partially leaking its findings last Friday, and undermined the democratic processes of parliament.
As a result, the cross-party committee recommended Johnson be banned from getting the pass granted to former MPs that allows them privileged access to the Westminster estate.
In concluding that Johnson deliberately – and not just recklessly – misled parliament, the committee cited his repeated and continuing denials over his knowledge of rule-breaking Downing Street gatherings as well as the frequency with which he “closed his mind” to the facts.
“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government,” it said. “He misled the house on an issue of the greatest importance to the house and to the public, and did so repeatedly.”
Soon after the report was published, Johnson accused the committee, which has a Tory majority and a Labour chair, of trying to “bring about what is intended to be the final knife thrust in a protracted political assassination”. He said its findings were “preposterous” and a sign of “desperation”.
Allies of Johnson reacted with fury and pledged to target Conservative members of the committee and Tory MPs who endorse its findings for deselection.
A vote on the findings, to be held on Monday, will be a moment of major jeopardy for Rishi Sunak as Johnson’s explosive reaction threatens to undermine efforts to draw a line under the Partygate scandal and end the vicious infighting that has erupted again in recent days.
The row about the report has already resulted in Johnson and the loyalist Nigel Adams sparking byelections in Uxbridge and Selby on 20 July by standing down, and Nadine Dorries plans to cause another moment of peril for Sunak later in the summer.
Many Tory MPs are likely to endorse the result of the more than year-long inquiry in the free vote – which comes on Johnson’s 59th birthday and three years to the day since the No 10 celebration that led to him being fined by police for breaching coronavirus laws.
But there could be a damaging split on the government benches if Johnson’s allies refuse to follow suit. One Tory minister said: “This should bring an end to the Boris psychodrama once and for all. We’ve had enough of it – and of him. He’s got nobody to blame but himself.”
Downing Street refused to say whether Sunak would vote on the report on Monday but it defended the committee. “It is a properly constituted committee carrying out work at the behest of parliament,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said. “It would not be right to traduce or criticise the work of the committee.”
The 106-page report, which accused Johnson of what amounted to an “attack on our democratic institutions”, found that the former MP was in serious contempt of parliament in five key ways:
Misleading the Commons by claiming Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in No 10 on four separate occasions as well as when he purported to correct the record; failing to tell MPs about his own knowledge of the gatherings; claiming he received “repeated reassurances” that rules had not been broken – when just two people had made the suggestion.
Misleading the committee when he presented his evidence, many aspects of which were “not credible”; being “disingenuous” when putting forward his interpretation of government guidance; repeatedly insisting No 10 gatherings were within the rules because they were work events even though it was “highly unlikely” he genuinely believed all guidance was followed.
“Egregious” breach of confidence when he lashed out at the committee’s provisional findings in his shock resignation, having received an advance draft; leaking parts of the draft within 24 hours despite being specifically warned not to by the committee.
Impugning the committee by accusing it of “egregious bias” and likening it to a “kangaroo court” in a lengthy resignation statement that accused it of mounting a “political hit job” on him; doing so when he knew the committee would be unable to make a “substantive response”, meaning his assertions would go unchallenged.
Being complicit in a “campaign of abuse and intimidation” against the committee that amounted to “an attack on our democratic institutions”; being “insincere” in his attempts to distance himself from the attacks on committee members, having previously claimed he had the “utmost respect” for its work; claiming the report “reeked of prejudice”, which was a further attempt to undermine the parliamentary process.
A special report is expected to be published in the next fortnight that could identify the MPs – thought to include Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg – who may have committed contempt in a “sustained attempt, seemingly coordinated,” to undermine the privileges committee.
An official told the committee that No 10 had been an “oasis of normality” during the pandemic, with birthday parties, leaving drinks and “wine time Fridays” all continuing. Staff were warned to be “mindful” of cameras as they left but it was “all a pantomime” that was “part of a wider culture” of rule-breaking.
The committee said it took Johnson’s explanations of 16 further gatherings at Chequers and Downing Street being considered by police at face value. Johnson insisted those events were within the rules and necessary to provide support to his pregnant wife, Carrie.
But it warned: “If for any reasons it subsequently emerges that Mr Johnson’s explanations are not true, then he may have committed a further contempt.”
A snap YouGov survey of more than 3,000 adults on Thursday suggested nearly seven in 10 believed Johnson knowingly misled parliament. That included just over half of voters who backed the Tory party under Johnson in the 2019 general election.
Opposition parties called for Johnson to pay back the public money used to cover a £245,000 bill for his lawyers during the Partygate inquiry, with the Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner, saying taxpayers should not pick up the cost.
David Garfinkel, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “It’s an utter tragedy that Johnson was in charge when the pandemic struck and he should never be allowed to stand for any form of public office again. His fall from grace must serve as a lesson to other politicians to act with honesty and to serve the public as a whole, that is the only positive that can come from this.”
