The long-awaited MPs report on whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament regarding Covid lockdown parties in No. 10 is now available.
The seven-member privileges committee produced a report that is about 30,000 words long after conducting an investigation for a year.
After receiving an advance copy and accusing the committee of bias, the former prime minister abruptly resigned as a member of parliament last week.
The main results are listed below.
When Mr. Johnson claimed in the Commons that Covid rules were always followed in No. 10 following the Partygate scandal, the committee was asked to determine whether he had engaged in "contempt" of Parliament.
They discovered that he did in a number of ways:.
One of the most important aspects of the investigation concerned the former prime minister's intentions.
Although he had previously acknowledged that his initial statements had misled MPs, he maintains that he had at the time believed them to be true and that they were supported by assurances he had received.
He was "deliberately closing his mind," according to the report, about Downing Street's inaction in enforcing social segregation.
Furthermore, it was discovered that he had "after-the-fact rationalizations" about the advice he had been given.
His former principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, a civil servant, provided some important evidence.
In his testimony to the inquiry, he stated that as he was preparing for Prime Minister's Questions in December 2021, he had considered whether Mr. Johnson's claim that rules had always been followed was "realistic.".
Mr. Johnson added that he had received guarantees from his media advisors that the law was adhered to.
The committee disagreed, stating that it was improper to generalize about the application of the law based on this advice, which was provided in response to press reports.
According to the report, he should have consulted government lawyers to get an "authoritative assessment" before making this statement.
According to the report, it had intended to suggest Mr. Johnson be suspended from the Commons for longer than 10 days before he announced his decision to resign.
Because of this, he might have had to run in a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
Suspending him, however, is no longer an option because he already resigned as an MP last week in a scathing statement.
However, according to the report, given what he has said about the committee, they would have suggested a 90-day ban, which is an extremely long ban by recent standards.
Additionally, it states that he should not be granted a parliamentary pass, which is something that ex-MPs are typically eligible to request.
The damage the report ultimately does to his reputation among Conservative MPs and what it means for his chances of making a comeback in politics may be the biggest punishment.
