MPs set for marathon hearing over Boris Johnson lockdown parties

Boris Johnson will give hours of evidence denying he was in contempt of parliament over lockdown parties, and trying to avoid suspension.

Boris Johnson will be interrogated for four hours over his lockdown parties. Picture: Getty Images.

MPs investigating whether Boris Johnson misled parliament over Downing Street parties are spending hours preparing for a marathon hearing with the former prime minister.

Johnson will give up to four hours of evidence next Wednesday as he seeks to persuade the privileges committee that he was not in contempt of parliament when answering questions about lockdown rule-breaking in Downing Street.

If the committee finds against Johnson he could be suspended as an MP, potentially triggering a by-election in his Uxbridge & South Ruislip constituency.

The seven MPs on the committee had two meetings yesterday to discuss the best ways to take on Johnson in the hearing, which will be televised. They have also set aside eight hours to discuss strategy from 10am to 6pm today.

The preparations reflect how the committee’s probe could hinge on the evidence session. While the committee compelled written evidence from 23 witnesses, asking them to provide a statement of truth equivalent to an oral statement under oath, they are not expected to hold in-person hearings with anyone beyond Johnson.

The former prime minister must therefore rely on his own evidence to persuade the committee that he did not knowingly mislead MPs when he repeatedly claimed that he had no knowledge of rule-breaking. The hearing will come just over a fortnight after the committee published a document detailing four ways in which they believed he may have misled the Commons.

If the committee finds Johnson in contempt of parliament, he could be suspended from the Commons. A suspension of more than ten days would trigger a recall petition, enabling Johnson’s constituents to force a by-election.

On Monday, Rishi Sunak promised not to pressure the four Conservative MPs who make up a majority on the committee into treating Johnson lightly. Asked whether he would urge the MPs against imposing a harsh punishment on Johnson, Sunak told ITV: “That wouldn’t be right. This is a matter for parliament and the house. It’s not a matter for the government.”

The committee is chaired by Harriet Harman, the former deputy Labour leader. In addition to a further Labour MP and an MP from the Scottish National Party, four of Johnson’s Conservative colleagues sit on the committee. They are Sir Bernard Jenkin, a veteran backbencher, Sir Charles Walker, a former acting chairman of the 1922 Committee, Alberto Costa, a former government lawyer, and Andy Carter, the newest to parliament having won his seat in 2019.

Both Carter and Costa resigned roles as junior government aides last year to ensure the confidence of opposition MPs in conducting the probe.

Conservative Post, a right-wing website which has run a campaign pleading with MPs to restore Johnson to Downing Street, is urging party members to email the four MPs telling them they will not “tolerate politically-motivated attacks against our party”. Within hours of the campaign launching, the MPs had received almost 300 emails, the Daily Express reported.

A spokesman for the committee said: “The decision to carry out this inquiry was not taken by the privileges committee but by the House of Commons as a whole.”

The Times