A parliamentary investigation has shown that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeatedly deliberately misled Parliament with his statements about Downing Street parties that violated quarantine restrictions during the pandemic.
This is reported by Sky News.
The House Privileges Committee found Johnsonʼs violations serious enough to recommend a 90-day suspension. However, Johnson got ahead of the events and left the Parliament himself.
The former prime minister has been under investigation by the Privileges Committee since last June, after it emerged that a series of meetings took place in Downing Street during the lockdown.
After the investigation, the committee concluded that Boris Johnson:
- repeatedly misled the chamber;
- showed disrespect again last week by accusing the committee;
- impeached the committee, thereby undermining the democratic process in the House of Representatives;
- was complicit in a campaign of abuse and attempts to intimidate the committee.
At the end of 2021, a number of publications in the British press claimed that parties were taking place in Downing Street under strict lockdown conditions. At first Johnson denied such a violation, and then had to admit that it was true. In March, during the hearings of the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges, the former British Prime Minister said that he was not lying to members of Parliament when he talked about holding parties in Downing Street during the lockdown. And he added that one of these meetings, where he was with a glass of wine, was "absolutely necessary and had a working purpose."