Key takeaways from Boris Johnson’s report

The House of Commons Privileges Committee has delivered a strong verdict on Boris Johnson’s conduct in the Partygate scandal.

The seven-member, cross-party committee published its 108-page report on Thursday following a 14-month investigation into the former prime minister.

The committee is investigating whether Johnson, while prime minister, deliberately misled parliament that COVID-19 rules were followed at all times, following media reports of parties held during pandemic restrictions at Downing Street. Below are five takeaways from the report’s publication.

1. Johnson ‘repeatedly in contempt’ of Parliament

The former prime minister was found by the Privileges Committee to have committed several contempts of parliament by lying to MPs that parties took place in Number 10 during the coronavirus restrictions.

MPs on the committee also concluded that Johnson had been involved in a “campaign of abuse and intimidation” against the panel.

The report found that some of Johnson’s rebuttals and explanations were “so disingenuous that they were by their very nature deliberate attempts to mislead the Committee and the House”, while others “demonstrated deliberation because of the frequency with which they racked their brains”. shut off from the truth”.

As Parliament governs its own affairs, the committee was given a mandate to determine whether Johnson had committed any “contempt” – an offense defined as an act or omission which would bring the House of Commons to its obstructs or hinders the performance of the works, and any reasonable sanction.

2. Johnson faces suspension from the Commons for 90 days

The committee said it would have recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons for Johnson if he had not pre-empted such an outcome by resigning as an MP the previous Friday.

The proposed sanction was nine times the length of suspension needed to trigger a so-called recall petition, which would have allowed Johnson’s constituents to demand a parliamentary by-election to remove him.

Severance sanctions were proposed as punishment for Johnson’s repeated contempt and in several cases for “seeking to undermine parliamentary process”.

These included lying to the Commons and the committee, breaching the confidence of the committee by publicly disclosing its draft findings the previous Friday, implicating the integrity and complicity of the panel in an attempt to intimidate MPs.

Formal minutes of the committee show that SNP member Alan Dorans and Labor member Yvonne Fovorg pushed for Johnson to be permanently expelled from the Commons, rather than temporarily suspended.

3. A parliamentary pass should be withheld

In light of Johnson’s resignation and suspension from the Commons not being possible, the committee recommended that he be barred from obtaining the pass to Parliament that is usually granted to former MPs.

It follows a ban previously imposed on former Commons Speaker John Bercow in 2022, after he was found to be a “serial liar” and “serial bully” of parliamentary staff in a report by an independent expert panel.

The Commons is set to vote on Monday to approve the Privileges Committee’s report about Johnson and its recommended approval.

The free vote – in which Tory MPs will not be whipped for supporting a parliamentary motion about the report – will be a major test for Johnson, revealing how much parliamentary support he still has at this low stage in his political career. Let’s achieve

4. Uncharted territory for former PM

The Privileges Committee explained that Johnson’s “serious contempt” in deliberately misleading the House was “all the more serious” because he was Prime Minister at the time.

“There is no instance that a Prime Minister has deliberately misled the House,” the report said.

It acknowledged that the case would now set its precedent for “the standards of accountability and integrity the House expects of ministers”.

Lawmakers also found that Johnson had breached confidentiality requirements in his resignation statement last Friday by criticizing the committee’s draft findings.

The report stated that Johnson’s conduct “in making this statement is in itself a very serious contempt”.

5. Johnson hits back at committee

In a fiery 1,680-word statement, Johnson variously ridiculed the Privileges Committee’s findings as “nonsense”, “lies”, “deranged”, “plainly absurd” and “a load of absolute nonsense”. .

The former prime minister accused the committee of pushing a political agenda.

He also singled out the committee chair and veteran Labor MP Harriet Harman for expressing a “prejudicial view” of her conduct at Partygate before the investigation began.

He criticized Sir Bernard Jenkin, a member of the committee and long-time Tory MP, for allegedly harboring a “personal grudge” towards him.

On the committee’s central finding that he had lied to parliament with his assurances to the Commons dispatch box that Covid rules had been followed at all times in Downing Street, Johnson reiterated his insistence that he believed the rules had been followed. was followed.

He said he still found it “upset” that he was found breaking the law at his “so-called birthday party” in Downing Street during lockdown, which he called “lunch with those people at my table”. with whom I worked every day. ,

Johnson became the first prime minister to commit a criminal offense while in office in June 2020 after attending a birthday party in Downing Street that was found to have breached coronavirus rules. In April 2022, Johnson paid a fine for attending the meeting.