Partygate: Boris Johnson hits out at 'rubbish' verdict he deliberately lied about Covid parties

Boris Johnson called the verdict a 'load of complete tripe'. Credit: PA

Boris Johnson has criticised a parliamentary committee's verdict that he deliberately lied to MPs about whether lockdown rules were broken in No 10, branding it as "rubbish".

His comments come after the Privileges Committee released its full 30,000 word report on Thursday morning.

In its report the committee said Mr Johnson had committed "repeated" and "serious" contempts of Parliament, finding that his behaviour warranted a 90-day suspension.

In a statement the former prime minister said: "This is rubbish. It is a lie. In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the Committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts."

Boris Johnson faced 90 day suspension for misleading parliament

The key points within Mr Johnson's statement

  • Mr Johnson said he believed "correctly" that the events he attended, while the UK was under coronavirus restrictions, were "reasonably necessary for work purposes".

  • He criticised the "hypocrisy" of the Privileges Committee, taking aim at Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin - who sits on it as a member - and alleging that he had attended "at least one 'birthday event'" in December 2020.

  • The former prime minister offered a stringent denial of what he labelled "perhaps the craziest assertion of all" that he saw with his "own eyes" the lockdown Christmas party, which took place on December 18 2020.

  • Mr Johnson concluded his statement by calling the release of the report a "dreadful day for MPs and for democracy".

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'A load of complete tripe'

Mr Johnson insisted that "after a year of work" the committee had found "not a shred of evidence" that he or members of his staff had broke lockdown rules.

"Their argument can be boiled down to: 'Look at this picture - that's Boris Johnson with a glass in his hand. He must have known that the event was illegal. Therefore he lied'," he said.

"That is a load of complete tripe. That picture was me, in my place of work, trying to encourage and thank my officials in a way that I believed was crucial for the government and for the country as a whole, and in a way which I believed to be wholly within the rules."

Hypocrisy from within the Privileges Committee

Mr Johnson said the committee "cannot possibly believe the conclusions of their own report", alleging that one of its members, Sir Bernard Jenkin, had attended a birthday party for his wife.

He said: "Why was it illegal for me to thank staff and legal for Sir Bernard to attend his wife's birthday party?

"The hypocrisy is rank."

Boris Johnson has accused Sir Bernard Jenkin (above) of breaching lockdown rules. Credit: PA

Downing Street Christmas Party

Mr Johnson said the committee was "without any evidence whatever" in relation to its "Mystic Meg claim" that he saw a lockdown Christmas party at Downing Street. The event took place on December 18 2020.

He added that the committee "totally ignored the general testimony about that evening, which is that people were working throughout, even if some had been drinking at their desks".

He said: "How do they know what I saw? What retinal impressions have they somehow discovered, that are completely unavailable to me? 

"I saw no goings on at all in the press room, or none that I can remember, certainly nothing illegal."

'A dreadful day for MPs and for democracy'

The former prime minister said the committee's decision "means that no MP is free from vendetta, or expulsion on trumped up charges by a tiny minority who want to see him or her gone from the Commons".

He said: "I do not have the slightest contempt for parliament, or for the important work that should be done by the Privileges Committee.

"But for the Privileges Committee to use its prerogatives in this anti-democratic way, to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination - that is beneath contempt.

"It is for the people of this country to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman."

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