Global Courant
LONDON –
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament about the parties ignoring the lockdown that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday after a year-long investigation.
A damning report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee found that Johnson’s actions were such a blatant breach of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension by parliament. While a damning indictment of the former prime minister’s conduct, the recommendation is largely symbolic as Johnson angrily resigned as a lawmaker on Friday after the commission informed him of its conclusions.
Johnson, 58, last week described the committee as a “kangaroo court” conducting a “witch hunt” to oust him from parliament. A majority of the panel’s seven members are from Johnson’s Conservative Party.
The report is just the latest installment in the “partygate” scandal that has distracted lawmakers since local news organizations revealed that members of Johnson’s staff held a series of parties in 2020 and 2021, when such gatherings were banned by pandemic restrictions. The full House of Commons will now discuss the committee’s report and decide whether to agree with the panel’s findings and recommended sanctions.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LONDON (AP) — Lawmakers are expected to release a much-anticipated report on Thursday into whether former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament about COVID lockdown flotting parties in his Downing Street office.
Parliament’s Privileges Committee has spent 14 months investigating Johnson’s behavior during “partygate,” a series of boozy gatherings in his office that violated strict COVID-19 restrictions his government had imposed on the country.
Johnson, 58, angrily quit as a lawmaker on Friday after the commission gave him advance notice that he would face sanctions. He described the seven-member commission – which included both the ruling Conservatives and opposition party members – as a “kangaroo court” and accused political opponents of driving him out in a “witch hunt”.
On Wednesday, ahead of the report’s release, Johnson also called for the top Conservative member of the panel, Bernard Jenkin, to resign over claims he himself had broken pandemic restrictions.
Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Opposition, said the move was a “typical Boris Johnson diversionary tactic that doesn’t change the fact that he broke the law and lied about it”.
Had he lied and despised Parliament, Johnson would have been suspended from the House of Commons. A suspension of 10 days or more would have meant Johnson’s voters could have petitioned Johnson in his seat in a suburb of London to remove him and elect a new legislator.
Johnson’s move to leave parliament means he can no longer be suspended, and his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat will be contested in a special election next month.
Johnson and his wife, Carrie, were fined by the Metropolitan Police last year for breaking COVID laws at a birthday party for Johnson at his Downing Street residence and office in June 2020.
Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was also one of dozens of people fined in government buildings in 2020 and 2021 for a series of office parties and “wine-time Fridays.”
Revelations of the booze-fueled gatherings, which took place at a time when millions were forbidden from seeing loved ones or even attending family funerals, angered many Britons and contributed to a series of ethics scandals that marked Johnson’s downfall. Johnson resigned as prime minister last summer following a mass exodus of government officials protesting against his leadership.
Johnson has admitted to misleading lawmakers when he assured them no rules had been broken, but he insisted he did not do so intentionally.
In March, he told the committee that he “honestly believed” the five meetings he attended, including a farewell party for a staff member and his own surprise birthday party, were “legitimate work meetings” designed to boost morale among overworked staff members who were overworked. faced a deadly pandemic.
He also said that “trusted advisers” assured him that neither the legally binding rules nor the government’s coronavirus guidelines had been breached.
