Boris Johnson slams Parliament for ‘repeated contempt’

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been savagely condemned for lying to Parliament over the Covid “Partygate” scandal reports This casts doubt on whether he will ever be able to make a political comeback.

The report by a cross-party committee of MPs published on Thursday is a scathing indictment of Johnson’s conduct in high office, finding he had committed a number of contempts of parliament.

The panel said that if Johnson had not already stepped down as an MP, he would be barred from the House of Commons for 90 days for “repeatedly seeking to contempt and undermine the parliamentary process”. Should have been suspended.

Dealing a further blow to Johnson, the Commons Privileges Committee also recommended that he “should not be granted a former member’s pass” – restricting his access to parliamentary property.

The MPs’ report found that he deliberately misled the Commons, knowingly lied to the Committee of Privileges, committed breach of trust, challenged the panel and was involved in a “campaign of abuse and attempts to intimidate the Committee”.

Johnson resigned as an MP last Friday after receiving an advance copy of the report by the committee, which claimed he was the victim of a “political hit job” by a “kangaroo court”.

Johnson jumped before push was given: if he had remained an MP, the account of deceit and misconduct contained in the 108-page report would almost certainly have forced him out of parliament.

All MPs will consider the report of the Committee of Privileges next week. If the Commons supports its findings that he deliberately misled Parliament, it would represent an inglorious coda to Johnson’s premiership.

Johnson criticized the committee on Friday, claiming it was the victim of a “vendetta” and that the report was the “final stab-thrust in a long political assassination”.

He said the committee’s claim that he had deliberately lied to Parliament was “deranged”, adding: “It is nonsense. It is a lie.” He said all the incidents mentioned in the report were valid.

The seven-member committee recommended that Johnson – if he was still an MP – should be suspended from the Commons for 90 days. Johnson’s constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip could then file a recall petition, triggering a parliamentary by-election.

Johnson, Prime Minister from July 2019 to September 2022 and former Mayor of London, was one of Britain’s most controversial politicians in recent times and the most powerful advocate of the Brexit cause.

He got the UK out of the European Union in January 2020 but his premiership was immediately engulfed in the coronavirus crisis. The epidemic nearly claimed Johnson’s life, but his conduct afterwards was to prove his downfall.

A series of parties were held in Downing Street and Whitehall – Johnson himself was fined by police for breaking Covid lockdown rules – but the former premier repeatedly denied to MPs that any rules had been broken .

The Privileges Committee, chaired by veteran Labor MP Harriet Harman, concluded that Johnson was well aware that Covid rules had been broken – having heard evidence from several officials working in Downing Street at the time – and that he deliberately misled MPs.

“This inquiry goes to the heart of our democracy,” the lawmakers said. “Misleading the House is not a technical issue but a very important matter.”

Lying in Parliament is considered a contempt and would normally signal the end of a political career, but Johnson has shown in the past that he plays by different rules.

He has said he has quit parliament “for now”, leaving open the possibility of a return in next year’s general election.

He and his allies hope that members of the Tory party will agree that Johnson is the victim of an establishment tailoring, echoing the tactics of former US President Donald Trump.

Several Tory MPs have already said that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, should block Johnson from the party’s list of parliamentary candidates.

But Johnson made it clear on Thursday that he would not go quietly. He said, ‘This report is fabricated. “It was wrong to believe in the committee or its good faith. The terrible truth is that it is not me who distorted the truth. It is Harriet Harman and her committee.