The Privileges Committee has published its report on whether Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over partygate. It is damning.
The 30,000-word document finds that he committed multiple contempts of parliament, including deliberately misleading the house, deliberately misleading the committee, breaching confidence, impugning the committee and the democratic process of the house and ‘being complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee’.
The committee, consisting of seven MPs including four Tories, had to update its conclusions after Johnson resigned, saying that it would have recommended a 90-day suspension of the former prime minister. But it has now recommended that he should not be granted a former members’ pass. This punishment seems to have increased as a result of the response from Johnson to the inquiry and its conclusions: it is not just about the initial offences where he told MPs that he had been assured that the guidance had been followed at all times.
The key section in the report concerns Johnson’s attitude to the inquiry itself
When it comes to that initial incident of misleading the House, the committee rests heavily on the evidence from his former press secretary Jack Doyle and private secretary Martin Reynolds.
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