March 22, 2023 at 19:05 GMT
Updated 29 minutes ago
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Watch: Key moments from Boris Johnson’s Partygate barbecue
Boris Johnson has repeatedly insisted he did not intentionally mislead Parliament about Partygate at a three-hour barbecue by a committee of MPs.
The former prime minister began the session with a Bible in his hands as he vowed: “Be honest, I haven’t lied to the House.”
He admitted social distancing at Downing Street gatherings during the Covid lockdown had not been “perfect”.
But he told MPs that the guidelines – as he understood them – had been followed.
The Privileges Committee is investigating Mr Johnson’s statements to Parliament after details of alcohol-fuelled parties and other gatherings at Downing Street emerged in the media from late 2021.
If MPs find he has deliberately or recklessly misled Parliament, he faces suspension from the House of Commons – a move that could lead to by-elections in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
Mr Johnson, with a legal adviser at his side and supporters including former Cabinet Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg sitting behind him, was in a pugnacious mood as he answered MPs’ questions.
MEPs themselves have been adamant in their questioning, with the committee chair, Harriet Harman of Labour, once calling his assurances “flamboyant” and saying they “didn’t matter much at all”.
“Electric fence”
Mr Johnson insisted “essential” work meetings, which he said included staff leaving Dos at Downing Street, were allowed under his government’s Covid guidelines.
At times, members of the committee – including senior Tory Sir Bernard Jenkin – have expressed disbelief at his reasoning.
Sharing a picture of himself surrounded by colleagues and drinks during an exit, Mr Johnson argued that No 10 staff could not have an “invisible electric fence around them”.
“They will occasionally drift into each other’s orbit,” he said, accepting that “perfect social distancing is not observed” in the image but denied that it violates the guidance.
“I think it was absolutely necessary for professional reasons,” he said of the November 2020 event for outgoing communications director Lee Cain.
“We have followed the instructions to the best of our knowledge and belief – what the instructions stipulated.”
That was the event he had in mind on 1 December 2021 when he told MPs all guidelines had been followed, he told Sir Bernard.
Sir Bernard said: “I have to say, if you had said all that to the House of Commons at the time, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here. But you didn’t.”
Asked later in the session by Labor MP Andy Carter if he should have made those arguments at the time, he said: “Perhaps I should have explained more clearly what I meant – and what I felt and believed to be following the guidelines – that would have done it done helped.”
Other key moments were:
- Mr Johnson said the procedure used to decide whether he disregarded Parliament was “manifestly unfair” and he claimed MPs had found “nothing to suggest I was warned in advance that the events in No .10 were illegal”.
- Harriet Harman dismissed claims of bias and said MPs would leave their “partisan interests at the committee’s door”, amid claims by Mr Johnson’s supporters that it was a “kangaroo court”.
- Mr Johnson said if it had been “obvious” that rules had been broken in No 10, as the committee has argued, then it would have been “obvious” to others as well, including now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
Asked if he would have told other organizations if they had been asked at a government press conference on the pandemic if they could hold “anti-socially distanced farewell meetings”, Mr Johnson said: “I would have said it’s up to the organisations, like it’s in the guidelines. to decide how they will implement the guidelines among themselves.”
Image source, Sue Gray Report/Cabinet Office
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Boris Johnson says Downing Street gatherings are work events
He also insisted his June 2020 birthday party was “reasonably necessary for work purposes” at the height of the pandemic, for which he was fined by police.
And he defended the presence of luxury interior designer Lulu Lytle – who remodeled the Johnsons’ Downing Street flat – because she was a “constructor” working at No 10.
He said then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was also present, was “as surprised as I was” at the fines received.
“I thought it was a completely harmless event,” Mr Johnson said. “It didn’t feel any different than an ordinary social or gardening event.”
“Scintilla of Doubt”
In another testy exchange with Sir Bernard Jenkin, Mr Johnson was asked for his comments that it was “no great vice” to rely on assurances from political advisers before making statements to the House of Commons.
Sir Bernard expressed surprise that if there had been “the tiniest spark of doubt” about whether the rules were being followed, Mr Johnson would not have sought the advice of officials or prosecutors.
“If I were accused of breaking the law and I had to make commitments to Parliament… I would need the advice of a lawyer,” Sir Bernard told him.
A visibly annoyed Mr Johnson told the Senior Tory: “This is complete nonsense, I mean complete nonsense.
“I asked the people in charge. They were older people. They had worked very hard.”
The committee will deliver its verdict on Mr Johnson by the summer.
The entire House of Commons would vote on any recommendations. Mr Sunak has agreed to give Tory MPs a free conscience vote on Mr Johnson’s fate.