The Privileges Committee has today said that breaches of pandemic rules would have been “obvious” to Boris Johnson when he was at lockdown gatherings.
The Privileges Committee has today said that breaches of pandemic rules would have been “obvious” to Boris Johnson when he was at lockdown gatherings.
The committee, which is investigating whether Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over lockdown parties in Downing Street, says that MPs may have been misled by the former Prime Minister on multiple occasions.
Johnson was fined by the Met Police last year for breaching the government’s own lockdown rules, he has insisted throughout that he did not knowingly break the law.
However, the interim report published today finds that there is evidence Johnson misled MPs when he repeatedly said no lockdown rules had been broken in Downing Street. The former Tory leader is due to give evidence to the Privileges Committee in the week beginning March 20.
The evidence in the report not only includes damning new photos but also testimony from one witness saying that Johnson told a packed No 10 gathering in November 2020, when strict distancing rules were in force, that “this is probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.
Other messages show Downing Street staff trying to work out “our best possible defence” when evidence emerged of the lockdown breaking parties a year later.
The report states: “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.”
Here are the new pictures shared in the report which show Johnson attending events during lockdown, including with booze on the table.
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