Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson “deliberately misled” to the House of Commons on ‘partygate’, the parties at the Downing Street residence during the pandemicas he concludes, for unanimityhe report of over 100 pages prepared by a parliamentary committee and published this Thursday.
“We concluded that when you told the House and this committee that the rules and guidance were being followed, your own knowledge was such that you deliberately misled the House and this committee,” the Committee on Privileges report said today. of the Commons, which investigated ‘partygate’ for over a year.
The committee also accused Johnson of being “complicit in a campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation.” The former president, in response, once again assured that he is innocent and described the report as “garbage”, “lie” and “farce” undertaken by the members of the committee to get revenge of the.
[Boris Johnson: los escándalos que marcaron la carrera del ex primer ministro británico]
In his statement, Johnson also considered that today is “a frightful day for the deputies and the democracy“and assured that no parliamentarian is “safe” of a vendetta”.
Johnson, who was in charge of the Government between July 2019 and September 2022announced last Friday that he was leaving his seat as deputy for the English constituency of Uxbridge & South Ruislip with immediate effect, considering that the committee had “made it clear” to him in a letter that it was preparing to expel him from the Lower House.
However, the committee has stressed that Johnson cannot be qualified to be part of Parliament: “We recommend that you are not entitled to a former deputy passthe committee said, referring to a pass that allows former prime ministers access to parliament.
In the report, which details six events held in Downing Street, the committee, which includes members from both the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labor Partysaid: “We conclude that by deliberately misleading the House, Mr. Johnson was in grave contempt.”
Thus, if Johnson were still a member of parliament, the committee “would have recommended a House suspension for 90 days“. In addition, the Liberal Party is demanding that the annual allowance of £115,000, granted to all former prime ministers, and that return the 245,000 pounds of public money spent to finance their legal support during the investigation.
Boris Johnson’s illegal party in Downing Street during the pandemic.
The report
Although Johnson called the process a “Witch hunt“, the committee struck down much of the defense of the former prime minister (accepted the allegations about 16 incidents related to not having sufficient evidence to refute them). In fact, this condition of head of government has been considered as aggravating from what has occured.
“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the highest-ranking member of the government. There is no precedent for a prime minister been found guilty of willfully misleading the House,” the committee says.
[Las siete vidas de Boris Johnson o cómo sobrevivir políticamente al ‘Partygate’]
They also accuse Johnson of being insincere when he later explained to other MPs: “We came to the conclusion that some of Mr. Johnson’s denials and explanations they were so insincere that constituted, by their very nature, deliberate attempts to mislead the Committee and the House, while others demonstrated deliberation due to the how often he closed his mind to the truth“.
Johnson’s repeated insults to the investigative committee, in the purest style of Donald Trumphas also been reprimanded: “This attack on a commission that carries out its mission from the very democratically elected House is a attack on our democratic institutions“.
“We consider these statements to be totally unacceptable. In our opinion, this conduct, together with the egregious breach of confidentiality, constitutes a additional gross contempt“, Add.
For all this, Boris Johnson will not enjoy, if the committee’s recommendation is followed, the right that former parliamentarians have to obtain an access pass to parliamentary premises.
If Boris Johnson were to remain an MP and the 90-day suspension was applied to him, it would be the second longest since 1979. The only one that exceeds this duration was the six-month suspension imposed on Keith Vaz in 2019 for offering to buy drugs for sex workers and not cooperating with an investigation.
