Boris Johnson Deliberately Misled MPs Over Partygate Scandal, Report Finds

Zac Ntim
·3 min read
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A parliamentary inquiry has concluded that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson actively misled MPs multiple times with his statements in response to the so-called Partygate scandal, in which he and his staff were accused of breaking social distancing rules during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The conclusion was released today in a report by the Privileges Committee of the House of Commons, which was investigating the scandal. In the report, the Committee said if Johnson were still an MP, it would recommend a suspension for 90 days.

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The report also states that two MPs on the committee were in favor of expelling Johnson from the Commons — a move that would have forced an immediate by-election in his former London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

The committee also recommended that Johnson, who resigned as an MP last week after seeing an early draft of the report, should not be granted a former member’s pass to parliament. This is customary for former MPs.

In its summary arguments, the committee said: The committee had provisionally concluded that Mr. Johnson deliberately misled the house and should be sanctioned for it by being suspended for a period that would trigger the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015. In light of Mr Johnson’s conduct in committing a further contempt on 9 June 2023, the committee now considers that if Mr Johnson were still a member he should be suspended from the service of the House for 90 days for repeated contempts and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process, by:

a) Deliberately misleading the house.
b) Deliberately misleading the committee.
c) Breaching confidence.
d) Impugning the committee and thereby undermining the democratic process of the house.
e) Being complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee.

The Partygate scandal rocked the UK in the months following the Covid-19 pandemic and ultimately contributed to Johnson’s downfall as Prime Minister. The affair involved reports of parties held by government and Conservative Party staff members at Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence, during the pandemic when public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings. In response, Johnson repeatedly said that no rules had been broken.

The privileges committee was chaired by the long-time MP Harriet Harman of the opposition Labor party but comprises a majority of Conservative MPs. The group was first asked to investigate whether Johnson misled Parliament last year. In an interim report published earlier this year, the committee said the evidence strongly suggested the rule breaches should have been “obvious” to Johnson.

London’s Metropolitan Police handed out a total of 126 fines to Conservative Party staff in May 2022, following an inquiry into lockdown breaches in the government’s Downing Street H.Q from May 2020 to April 2021, including a birthday party for Johnson in the cabinet room. The revelations about the gatherings and parties sparked anger in the UK where much of the population adhered to the lockdown rules, which prevented people from seeing family and friends.

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