Bombshell dossier ‘will clear Johnson over parties’
‘Ministers trust the advice they are given. They have to be able to do that for Parliament to work’
BORIS JOHNSON is preparing to unveil “bombshell” evidence that he believes will exonerate him over partygate, his allies have said.
As he awaits a grilling by the Commons privileges committee on Wednesday, the former prime minister’s legal team is finalising its defence to claims that he knowingly and deliberately misled MPs about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.
Their “bombshell defence dossier” will include messages from Mr Johnson’s advisers sent shortly before he spoke in Parliament advising him no Covid rules had been broken in No 10, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
“It contains new evidence that helps his case,” a source close to Mr Johnson’s defence team said. “His case is that he told Parliament what he believed to be true at the time. There is documentary evidence that will show he was advised to say what he went on and said.”
Mr Johnson has always argued that he believed no rules had been broken when he told MPs that was the case, but corrected himself when it later became apparent what had taken place.
His team will produce WhatsApp messages and other “internal comms” from the time which show his statement was based on what he was told by aides.
“When ministers go into the Commons, they are basically just reading out what they have been briefed to say,” the source said. “They trust the advice they are given, and that is justified. They have to be able to do that in order to make Parliament work effectively.
“That is what any minister would have done. Ministers need to be able to rely on what they have been told when they are updating Parliament.”
Mr Johnson’s six-person strong legal team, headed by Lord Pannick KC, has been given a deadline of tomorrow morning to submit its defence in writing. The committee will publish it before the hearing on Wednesday.
MPs on the panel have argued Mr Johnson should have known some of the events he attended broke lockdown guidance and are expected to press that point at the hearing.
The Metropolitan Police eventually issued 126 fines for Covid law breaches to 83 people linked to eight different gatherings in government buildings, proof of some wrongdoing.
Mr Johnson will argue that evidence
submitted to the committee by Downing Street staffers actually supports his case as it shows they also believed that no rule-breaking had taken place.
“The evidence will show that the general assumption of everyone present, including those hostile to Boris, was that rules and guidance were fol- lowed,” one of his allies said. “That destroys the argument that Boris must have known it was not in the rules.”
His legal team will also warn that his case risks having a chilling effect on Parliament as it would set a new precedent to haul MPs in front of the privi- leges committee every time they said something in good faith and then later corrected the record.
And they will claim the privileges committee is an “unfair process”.
“We will have to make the point that Harriet Harman [the Labour chair of the committee] is already on record saying she believes Boris is guilty of contempt,” one Johnson ally said. “You would never accept a judge who passes a verdict on someone’s guilt or innocence before seeing the evidence. ”
Mr Johnson is also likely to argue that the fact many pictures were taken by No 10’s photographer and published on its Flickr account “shows we didn’t think we had anything to hide”, a source said.
The former prime minister’s allies are urging the committee to publish all the evidence as they believe this will convince both MPs and the public to get behind Mr Johnson.
The four Conservative members of the privileges committee have come under pressure from supporters of Mr Johnson. And Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, has also been lobbied to “encourage” MPs to call off the committee’s inquiry.
If the committee determines Mr Johnson misled MPs, they can recommend a suspension from the Commons.
It is up to the Commons as a whole whether to endorse that. Downing Street has confirmed that Tory MPs will receive a free vote to determine Mr Johnson’s fate.
If a suspension of more than 10 days is voted through, Mr Johnson’s constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip can trigger a by-election, provided that they gather enough signatures, imperilling his political career.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “The privileges committee will vindicate Boris Johnson’s position. The evidence will show that Boris Johnson did not knowingly mislead Parliament.”