Boris Johnson “deliberately misled” Parliament in the partygate investigation

Will Boris Johnson’s political career survive? After an investigation of more than a year, the House of Commons Committee on Privileges, the main disciplinary body of the British Parliament, concluded that the former prime minister lied to lawmakers during the ‘partygate’ investigation.

According to the document, Johnson made false statements during the investigations into the party scandal at 10 Downing Street, when the United Kingdom was experiencing a strict lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The leader was “deliberately disingenuous when he tried to reinterpret his remarks to the House to avoid their plain meaning and rephrase the clear impression he intended to give.”notes the more than 100-page report.

The report details six events that took place in the offices and residence of the prime minister and notes that the former prime minister undermined the inquiry process by “deliberately misleading the board of investigators, breaching trust, challenging the committee, therefore breaking the House democratic process, and being complicit in the Committee’s campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation.”

“We came to the conclusion that when you told the House and this committee that the rules and guidance were being followedhis own knowledge was such that he deliberately misled the House and this Committee,” says the parliamentary report.

Conclusions for which it was recommended to sanction him as a parliamentarian for 90 days, enough to trigger the recall election process. Although Johnson resigned from his seat on June 9, for which he avoids that measure, the committee has recommended that the right to pass that is normally granted to former parliamentarians to access the Legislative be withdrawn.

It is the latest consequence of a resounding fall from grace of the person who led the Government of one of the largest economies in the world, after he was involved in the ‘partygate’.

The report notes that until last week, the initial punishment suggested for Johnson was a suspension for more than 10 session days, but the hypothetical corrective was extended in light of the statements that the political leader delivered last week, when he attacked the committee and its conclusions, which was considered “a very serious contempt”.

“Terrible day for democracy”: Johnson defends himself against accusations

The former prime minister refutes the accusations and insists that his attendance at the controversial meetings was legal.

Johnson, who resigned from Parliament after seeing an advance copy of the report, called the investigation a “witch hunt”, a criticism he reiterated after it was published.

“I believed, correctly, that these events were reasonably necessary for business purposes. We were handling a pandemic,” the former leader of the Conservative Party insisted in a statement.

Boris Johnson stressed that it is a “terrible day” for members of Parliament and for democracy in his country. “This decision means that no MP is free from revenge or ouster on trumped-up charges by a small minority who want to see him out of the House of Commons,” he maintained.

Likewise, the former prime minister accused the Committee of using “mystical” powers to see things he had not seen in Downing Street, when, he said, he had a duty to thank staff who were leaving or for their work during the health emergency.

But the committee did not accept his defense. It’s a heavy blow for one of Britain’s best-known and most divisive politicians, who led the Conservatives to a landslide electoral victory in 2019 but whose tenure was cut short by scandal.

It is a “damning” report

This is how the Labor Party described it, which last week accused Johnson of a “coward” for resigning from his post before the parliamentary inquiry document was published.

But even those conservative lawmakers who aren’t particularly loyal to Johnson questioned the severity of the committee’s findings.

“I’m not his biggest fan, but I think it’s excessive,” said one parliamentarian, quoted by Reuters, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some lawmakers who support the former premier have vowed to launch a kind of political counteroffensive to reject the report they call “vengeful.”

The political showdown will do little to heal deep divisions among the Conservatives and may add to the pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose attempt to try to boost Britain’s economy is overshadowed by the ongoing Johnson drama.

“While Rishi Sunak is distracted by the ongoing Conservative soap opera, people are clamoring for leadership on the issues that matter to them,” said Thangam Debbonaire, a Labor lawmaker.

Johnson apologized for his conduct but repeatedly denied deliberately misleading Parliament, saying he followed the advice of his advisers that his office was playing by the rules.

But the so-called ‘partygate’ marked the beginning of the end of his tenure as prime minister. A rebellion in his ruling Conservative Party last year, when ministers resigned en masse, forced him to announce his resignation as government leader in July of that year and he left office last September.

Now it is uncertain if he will be able to resume the top of a political career that he once held.

With Reuters and local media