An inquiry has found that former British prime minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over lockdown parties and should have faced a 90-day suspension.
After a year-long investigation, a committee of lawmakers issued a condemning report on Johnson’s actions in what is largely known as the “partygate” scandal, where the former PM’s staff held a series of parties in 2020 and 2021 when such gatherings were prohibited by pandemic restrictions.
“We have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the House, Mr Johnson committed a serious contempt,” the committee’s report said. “The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government.”
“There is no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.”
“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly,” the 106-page report stated.
In advance of the inquiry’s announcement, the House of Commons Privileges Committee informed Johnson that he would be sanctioned. However, the MP angrily quit as a lawmaker before this could occur, making the committee’s recommendation mostly symbolic. The suspension would have potentially triggered a by-election to replace him.
“This is rubbish. It is a lie,” Johnson said in response. “In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the Committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts.”
A majority of the committee’s seven members come from Johnson’s own Conservative Party. In a statement, the former MP called the panel a “kangaroo court” that conducted a “witch hunt” to drive him out of parliament.
On the eve of the report’s publication, Johnson also called for the panel’s most senior Conservative member, Bernard Jenkin, to resign over claims that he had broken pandemic restrictions as well.
Deputy leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper called the move a “typical distraction tactic from Boris Johnson that doesn’t change the fact he broke the law and lied about it.”
“This damning report should be the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson’s political career,” the party’s deputy leader, Cooper said.
The Liberal Democrats have called for Johnson to be stripped of the £115,000 annual allowance available to former prime ministers to run their office.
Johnson’s seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in parliament will be contested in a special election in July.