The House of Commons Privileges Committee has released its report on whether the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has misled Parliament over the ‘partygate’ scandal, which has seen many rallies in Downing Street during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Boris Johnson resigned as MP last Friday after receiving an advance copy of the report. He issued an unprecedented rebuke from the Privileges Committee, describing him in his resignation statement as a ‘kangaroo court’ and saying they were ‘determined to use procedure against me to oust me from Parliament’.
Now the report has been published and the group of cross-party MPs (four Tories, two Labor and one SNP member) on the Privileges Committee have concluded that Mr Johnson deliberately misled the House of Commons about Partygate, and (should he not leave the House) would have recommended a 90-day suspension.
But how can you read the report of the Privileges Committee in its entirety?
Here’s what you need to know.
How to read the report of the Privileges Committee?
The House of Commons Privileges Committee has published its report online, entitled ‘Case referred 21 April 2022 (conduct of the Right Honorable Boris Johnson): final report’.
It can be viewed on the Parliament.uk website.
What did the Privileges Committee report conclude about Boris Johnson?
The Privileges Committee report concluded that Boris Johnson was guilty of ‘repeated contempt’ and ‘sought to undermine the parliamentary process’ by:
- Deliberately mislead the House
- Deliberately mislead the Committee
- Break the trust
- Attacking the Committee and thus undermining the democratic process of the House
- Being complicit in the Committee’s campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation
The report was scathing of Boris Johnson’s conduct, both in addressing the House and the Committee, stating: ‘We conclude that by willfully misleading the House, Mr Johnson has committed grave contempt.’
The report went on to say: ‘The outrage was all the more serious as it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of government.
“There is no precedent for a Prime Minister to deliberately mislead the House. He misled the House on a matter of the utmost importance to the House and to the public and he did many times.
“He declined our invitation to reconsider his claims that what he said in the House was true.
“His defense to the allegation that he misled was ex post facto vindication and nothing more than artifice. He misled the Committee in the presentation of his testimony.
How did Boris Johnson react to the report?
In his inflammatory statement in response to the report, the former prime minister described the 108-page report’s findings as “garbage”, a “lie” and a “charade”.
He disputed the Committee’s interpretation of the events they investigated and claimed that they “could not believe the conclusions of their own report”.
The former prime minister went on to say: ‘The awful truth is that it was not me who twisted the truth to suit my purposes. This is Harriet Harman and her committee.
Boris Johnson called the Tory-majority committee’s findings ‘a dreadful day for MPs and for democracy’. He concluded with an attack on the chairman of the commission, saying: “It is up to the people of this country to decide who sits in Parliament, not Harriet Harman.”
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