Boris Johnson admits misleading MPs over Downing St ‘partygate’

A day before his interrogation by MPs, former PM defends his position over the scandal, says he didn’t intentionally mislead the Commons.

Boris Johnson has admitted misleading MPs over the Downing St Covid parties. Picture: AFP

Britain’s former prime minister Boris Johnson said overnight on Tuesday he inadvertently misled parliament over the “partygate” scandal but blamed top aides, ahead of a televised grilling that could determine his political fate.

Mr Johnson released a 52-page dossier detailing why he denied breaking the rules over two years of Covid lockdowns, when his staff were often partying in 10 Downing Street.

He was fined himself by police for one gathering, along with his then chancellor of the exchequer and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The former Conservative leader apologised and corrected the parliamentary record last May after previously insisting to MPs that the gatherings were above board. Mr Johnson refused to quit at the time but did so in July after a ministerial rebellion over a separate ethics scandal.

“I did not intentionally or recklessly mislead the house on 1 December 2021, 8 December 2021, or on any other date,” he wrote in the submission. “I would never have dreamed of doing so.”

The cross-party privileges committee of MPs is investigating whether he lied in his previous denials, before May, and is due to interrogate Mr Johnson for up to four hours overnight on Wednesday. A guilty verdict could lead to his suspension from the House of Commons. If the suspension is more than 10 sitting days, it could trigger a special election for his west London seat if enough voters demand one.

Mr Johnson said his apology and correction in May came at the earliest opportunity – after London police and senior civil servant Sue Gray had concluded their own investigations. He conceded that the Commons was “misled” when he previously stated that all the Covid rules and guidance had been respected.

“But when the statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time,” he argued, blaming advisers who had assured him that no rules were broken.

However, the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said it was “obvious” that Mr Johnson had lied to parliament and should resign as an MP. “Far worse though is the lies he deliberately told to bereaved families, after failing to protect our loved ones. His claim that he did so in ‘good faith’ is sickening,” it said.

The successive waves of Covid from 2020 claimed more than 220,000 lives in Britain, the second worst toll in Europe behind Russia’s. A separate public inquiry is looking into the government’s overall response and is likely to take years. So probes such as the privileges committee’s offer a more immediate snapshot into that painful period.

Despite having a Conservative majority, the committee has been accused by Mr Johnson loyalists of pursuing a “witch hunt”, and his dossier accused its members of being partisan and straying beyond their remit.

The committee retorted that it “remains confident in the fairness of its processes”.

“Mr Johnson’s written submission contains no new documentary evidence,” it said.

This month, the MPs found in an interim report that Mr Johnson should have known the rules were being flouted. They released photographs of the then prime minister toasting staff with wine at several gatherings.

AFP