Boris Johnson has submitted a last-ditch letter to the MPs investigating whether he misled Parliament over lockdown parties, as they prepare to publish their findings. The privileges committee said it was “dealing with” submissions received from the former PM at 23:57 on Monday. The committee is set to publish its conclusions this week but is unlikely to do so on Wednesday, as expected. Mr. Johnson quit as an MP last week after seeing the committee’s report.
In a statement, Mr. Johnson said the committee should “publish their report and let the world judge their nonsense”, adding “They have no excuse for delay”. “I have made my views clear to the committee in writing – and will do so more widely when they finally publish,” he said. Under the published process, Mr. Johnson was entitled to respond to the committee up to 14 days after receiving its draft findings, which were sent last week.
The committee said it would deal with the new developments and “report promptly”. Last week, the former prime minister branded the committee a “kangaroo court” whose purpose “has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”. Mr Johnson accused the committee of mounting a “witch hunt” against him, and its chairwoman, Labour’s Harriet Harman, of showing “egregious bias”.
The committee said it had “followed the procedures” at all times and accused Mr Johnson of impugning “the integrity of the House by his statement”. For almost a year, the seven-person committee – a majority of whom are Conservatives – have been considering whether Mr Johnson misled MPs about Covid-19 breaches in Downing Street and what he knew about them. Giving evidence in March, Mr Johnson admitted misleading Parliament, but denied doing it on purpose. He said social distancing had not been “perfect” at gatherings in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, but insisted the guidelines, as he understood them, were followed at all times.
The Partygate scandal dogged Mr Johnson’s premiership, with police fining him for breaking Covid rules in 2020 – making him the UK’s first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law. Mr Johnson’s resignation as an MP, which has triggered a by-election in his marginal constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, came last Friday. Mr Johnson said the draft report he had seen was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”, adding it was clear the committee was “determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament”. “They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons,” he said, insisting “I did not lie”.
