Publish the evidence
Partygate probe is suppressing documents that will clear Boris, claim his team
BORIS Johnson’s defence team last night accused the controversial Partygate inquiry of suppressing evidence that could exonerate him.
A bombshell internal briefing from his team states that the Commons Privileges Committee has received ‘thousands of documents’ that support his claim that he did not deliberately mislead Parliament over lockdown gatherings in No 10.
The document also accuses the inquiry of refusing to release the testimony of ‘dozens of witnesses’ who told the committee that they also believed the notorious gatherings were within the rules.
The note, a copy of which has been seen by the Daily Mail, states: ‘The committee should do the right thing and publish all the evidence it has gathered so that the public can make up their own mind.’
Mr Johnson’s legal team yesterday submitted a formal defence ‘dossier’ to the inquiry ahead of a televised grilling tomorrow. But the committee had failed to publish it by last night.
One former minister said: ‘It’s a shame the committee is sitting on Boris’s evidence. They have previously cherry-picked evidence that they liked, rather than letting Boris get his case out there.’
The Privileges Committee is holding an unprecedented investigation into whether Mr Johnson deliberately or ‘recklessly’ misled Parliament when he told MPs that
‘all guidance was followed’ in No 10. It plans to question Mr Johnson in public for up to four hours.
If he is found guilty of deliberately misleading Parliament he could face suspension or even a by- election. Allies of the former PM fear the inquiry, led by Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman, has become a ‘witch hunt’. In an interim report this month, the committee said it should have been ‘obvious’ to him at the time that lockdown rules were not being observed.
It published messages from No 10 aides, including one suggesting it was hard to explain how a Cabinet Room gathering to mark Mr Johnson’s birthday was within the rules. And the inquiry was granted access by No 10 to a vast cache of internal documents.
But the document produced by Mr Johnson’s team suggests many messages showing him in a more favourable light have been suppressed. The leaked briefing states evidence will show he was given ‘direct assurances by his advisers, before statements in the House, that the rules were followed’.
It also says: ‘The Privileges Committee evidence shows that dozens of witnesses said they believed the same thing as Boris Johnson – that the regulations were being followed and that any events he attended were work events.
‘There is no evidence in thousands of documents obtained by the committee that anyone in No 10 ever said they thought the rules or guidance had been broken at the time, or that his statements to Parliament were untrue.’
The team also warn that the committee’s chairman Ms Harman ‘is already on record saying she believes Boris Johnson is guilty of misleading Parliament.’ The fact the committee failed to publish the dossier of evidence – running to more than 50 pages – submitted Mr Johnson’s legal team yesterday leaves him unable to make his case in public ahead of the hearing tomorrow.
Last night it said it had only received the former PM’s evidence at 2.32pm and would need longer to assess it.
A spokesman said: ‘ The committee will need to review what has been submitted in the interests of making appropriate redactions to protect the identity of some witnesses. The committee intends to publish this as soon as is practicably possible.’