Partygate: We now know Boris Johnson misled us all

Boris Johnson committed "repeated" and "serious" contempts of Parliament by deliberately misleading MPs with his denials over the partygate scandal, a damning report has found. Credit: PA

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And when ITV News first broadcast images of Downing Street staff laughing and joking about a Christmas party, they were enough for most people to conclude that those who made the rules had not always been following them.

But now we have 30,000 words, penned by the Privileges Committee, which confirm not just what our eyes, but our ears, have been telling us. There were parties in No10 and, worse than that, Boris Johnson wasn’t truthful in what he said about them.

The detail is overwhelming, but the seven MPs on the committee have concluded that they and their colleagues were misled on multiple occasions, adding up to a serious contempt of parliament.

So, drawing on our reporting of partygate at the time, let’s look at what Boris Johnson said and when that’s ended his parliamentary career.

Boris Johnson deliberately lied to MPs over partygate scandal, report finds

1st December 2021 

The Daily Mirror had just published rumours of parties in No10 and the story began to gently bubble away. Boris Johnson was asked about them at Prime Minister’s Questions that day. 

“All guidance was followed”, he insisted.

The committee concludes that this was misleading.

8th December 2021

A week later, ITV News had just broadcast the video of Allegra Stratton joking with colleagues about a Christmas party, which blew the scandal wide open and led to public outrage.

At this PMQs he stated, “I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party, and that no Covid rules were broken.”

For a second time he misled MPs, the committee concludes.

12th January 2022

Following revelations broadcast on ITV News about a ‘BYOB’ party in the No10 garden, Boris Johnson again denied there was any wrongdoing.

This time he told MPs that the event “could be said, technically, to fall within the guidance”. 

Once more, the committee concludes he misled the Commons.

25th May 2022

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a gathering celebrating his birthday in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, Credit: PA/House of Commons

Following further revelations of partying, including a police fine for the birthday gathering reported by ITV News, Boris Johnson returned to the Commons to respond to a report into the parties by Sue Gray.

This time, he could no longer deny that rules had been broken, choosing instead to deny that he’d known about it. 

“I came to this house and said in all sincerity - the rules and guidance had been followed at all times. It was what I believed to be true.” 

This was the fourth occasion on which he misled MPs.

Partygate: Timeline of a national scandal that may finally be over

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Why were his statements misleading?

The committee spend thousands of words explaining this part, but it can be boiled down to a few simple points.

Firstly, what he said was misleading because Boris Johnson had attended some of the events. He saw with his own eyes activity which he must have known was not compliant with the rules and guidance. The committee did not think it was credible that he believed all guidance and rules had been followed.

Secondly, Boris Johnson told MPs that he had been assured by his staff that lockdown had been adhered to.

The committee concludes that there is little evidence of senior civil servants (as opposed to his political communications team) giving him that assurance – in fact, quite the opposite. More specifically, he was asked on 8th December by his Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds “whether it was realistic to argue that all guidance had been followed at all times” at that day’s PMQs.

Boris Johnson decided to delete the line from his script, but in the end he said it anyway. 

Is the committee really a ‘kangaroo court’?

There are multiple further ways in which the committee finds that Boris Johnson misled MPs during his evidence to the inquiry in March.

But overall their conclusions are so damning that it is almost understandable why Boris Johnson feels the only option available to him is to totally trash the reputation of the committee as a ‘kangaroo court’.

Again, they find his attacks to be a serious contempt of parliament. But his characterisation is also deeply flawed.

Firstly, the committee has a majority of Conservative MPs. That does not tally with claims of a Labour witch-hunt. 

And secondly, several committee members – and many of the people Boris Johnson has fallen out with including Rishi Sunak – campaigned to leave the EU. That does not tally with claims of a remainer plot either.

In fact, we can reveal that every single source who blew the whistle to us over partygate – and there were many – voted to leave the EU. Every single one of them says they voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 too.

Eighteen months on from our first report exposing the scandal, it is in Boris Johnson’s interest to argue that the truth is still contested. But a police, cabinet office and now privileges committee investigation have all settled on a different version of events to the one he has presented. 

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