Johnson: nothing to prove that I misled Commons
Former prime minister fights back after committee says it must have been obvious that lockdown rules were being broken
BORIS JOHNSON said that the committee investigating whether he misled Parliament over partygate had found “absolutely nothing” to prove its case after it released a new report.
The Privileges Committee declared yesterday that it must have been “obvious” to Mr Johnson that Covid rules were being broken when he attended boozy government events that later resulted in fines.
The MPS released Whatsapp messages showing a senior press aide expressing doubts about issuing denials about one event. The committee also published new photographs of alcoholfuelled gatherings.
But the 23-page document did not reveal new evidence that categorically showed the former prime minister had been told the gatherings broke rules before issuing his denials to MPS – the key issue being considered.
Mr Johnson gave a short television interview declaring victory after the report dropped, saying: “There’s absolutely nothing to show that any adviser of mine or civil servant told me, warned me, in advance that an event might be against the rules.
“Nothing to say that afterwards they thought it was against the rules.
“Nothing to show that I myself believed or was worried that something was against the rules. So that for me is a pretty astonishing gap given the huge amount of stuff that they have.”
But the full details of what the committee has found have yet to be revealed and Mr Johnson will give a grilling in public on what he knew at a hearing scheduled for later this month.
There was also fresh criticism of Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who oversaw an earlier inquiry into lockdown breaking parties in Downing Street who quit the Cabinet Office this week.
She will become the chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, in a move that has seen Johnson allies call the impartiality of her past investigation into question.
Mr Johnson himself said it was “surreal” that the Privileges Committee was citing the Gray report so much in its own inquiries, given the developments in the past 48 hours.
New Whatsapp messages
The MPS on the committee have been tasked with finding out whether Mr Johnson’s denials that any Covid rules were broken at social events in Government were deliberately misleading.
The Metropolitan Police after an investigation last year issued 126 fines for broken Covid laws to 83 people over eight different lockdown-breaching events in government buildings. Among the new evidence in the report was a Whatsapp message exchange involving Downing Street figures about a gathering for Mr Johnson’s birthday on June 19, 2020.
The messages, sent on Jan 25, 2021, after reports about the event first became public, appear to show a discussion about how to deny that lockdown rules had been breached.
Mr Johnson’s director of communications writes in one message: “I’m struggling to come up with a way this one is in the rules in my head.”
When a No10 official suggests “reasonably necessary for work purposes”, the director of communications responds: “Not sure that one works does it. Also blows another great gaping hole in the PM’S account doesn’t it?”
Fines were eventually issued over the event, including to Mr Johnson himself.
The remarks are cited by the committee as they suggest that Mr Johnson should have known some of the gatherings he attended were not allowed within the Covid rules.
The committee writes: “The evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings. There is evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules.”
‘Like any prime minister, I relied upon advice from officials’
Focus on the denials
The report is the precursor to an evidence session that will be held with Mr Johnson in public when he will be asked if his denials of rule-breaking were honestly held.
It was announced yesterday that the hearing has been scheduled for the week starting March 20 – almost a year after the committee was first tasked with carrying out an inquiry.
The committee also questioned the basis of Mr Johnson’s blanket assertion to MPS, made in various forms as the partygate claims first emerged, that “the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”.
A line in the report read: “We will consider why Mr Johnson told the House that no rules or guidance had been broken in No10 when he knew what the rules and guidance were and was in attendance at gatherings where the rules and guidance were breached; and why he failed to tell the House about the gatherings at which he had been present.” The committee is also zooming in on how quickly Mr Johnson updated the House of Commons record when it became clear his claim no rules had been broken was incorrect. The committee’s task is not to determine whether MPS were misled, but whether he did so with knowledge that what he was saying was wrong.
MPS on the committee also managed to ascertain that Mr Johnson’s route up to his Downing Street flat went within sight of an area near the press office where some of the lockdown-breaking events took place, corroborating one of the claims of a whistle-blower.
New ‘party’ photographs
Mr Johnson was pictured at a proseccofuelled gathering in Downing Street just days after Matt Hancock gave police their “marching orders” to enforce strict lockdown measures.
A photograph showed the then prime minister addressing staff at a leaving do for two private secretaries during England’s third national lockdown. At least four bottles of prosecco and several bottles of beer could be seen on the table, around which a number of Downing Street staff are sitting or standing.
Mr Johnson, who is seen standing up addressing his staff, is said to have spoken for around five minutes at the event on Jan 14, 2021.
England’s third national lockdown had come into force a week earlier, with people told to stay at home except for a handful of reasons. At a meeting on Jan 10, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, wrote in a Whatsapp message that police had been given “marching orders” to strictly enforce lockdown measures.
In a message seen by The Daily Telegraph, he wrote: “The PM was in vg shape in that meeting … The rest of it was excellent and clear, and the plod got their marching orders.”
The newly-released photograph, contained in a report by the Commons privileges committee, shows at least a dozen people in the room with Mr Johnson. Plastic cups are dotted around the table with a hand sanitiser dispenser.
The committee’s report also includes two new photographs taken at an event on Nov 13, 2020, believed to have been held to celebrate the departure of Lee Cain as director of communications.
There is no social distancing and the former prime minister stood alongside a table filled with drink and food.
The fightback
In his lengthy statement, Mr Johnson rejected the suggestion any evidence had been found showing that he had knowingly misled Parliament.
Mr Johnson said: “It is clear from this report that I have not committed any contempt of parliament. It is also clear that what I have been saying about this matter from the beginning has been vindicated. That is because there is no evidence in the report that I knowingly or recklessly misled parliament, or that I failed to update parliament in a timely manner. Nor is there any evidence that I was aware that any events taking place in No 10 or the Cabinet Office were in breach of the rules or the guidance.
“Like any prime minister I relied upon advice from officials. There is no evidence that I was at any stage advised by anyone, whether a civil servant or a political adviser, that an event would be against the rules or the guidance before it went ahead. There is no evidence that I was later advised that any such event was contrary to requirements.”
The committee’s task has been complicated by the fact that Ms Gray resigned from the Cabinet Office. Mr Johnson said: “It is surreal to discover that the committee proposes to rely on evidence culled and orchestrated by Sue Gray, who has been appointed chief of staff to the leader of the Labour Party.
“This is particularly concerning given that the committee says it is proposing to rely on ‘the findings in the second permanent secretary’s report’ as ‘relevant facts which the committee will take into account. I leave it to others to decide how much confidence may now be placed in her inquiry and in the reports that she produced.”
A spokesman for the Privileges Committee pushed back on that characterisation, noting it has collected its own evidence. “The committee’s report is not based on the Sue Gray report.”