The Commons Privileges Committee has been encouraged by Boris Johnson to provide its report on whether he lied to Parliament on partygate so that “the world can judge their nonsense.”
The former prime minister blasted the panel’s “absurdly unfair rules” in a statement on Tuesday, claiming they barred him from criticizing its conclusions. He vowed to make his “views clear” when the panel’s conclusions are made public.
Following the committee’s claim that Mr. Johnson had made hurried appeals prior to the publication of its findings, which is anticipated to conclude that he intentionally misled MPs with his claims that lockdown procedures were followed in Downing Street, the committee made the statement.
At 11:57 p.m. on Monday, the committee said that it was “dealing with” the ex-premier’s contributions.
Before Mr. Johnson’s impromptu statements, the publishing of its conclusions had already been postponed until later this week, allegedly due to printing issues in Parliament.
In response, Mr Johnson said: “The Privileges Committee should publish their report and let the world judge their nonsense.
“They have no excuse for delay.
“Their absurdly unfair rules do not even allow any criticism of their findings.
“I have made my views clear to the committee in writing – and will do so more widely when they finally publish.”
Mr. Johnson previously referred to the seven-member committee, which has a majority of Conservatives but is chaired by long-time Labour MP Harriet Harman, as a “kangaroo court” when he announced his resignation from the Commons on Friday after seeing a copy of its findings.
A Privileges Committee spokesman said on Tuesday: “A letter enclosing further representations from Mr Johnson was received by the committee at 11.57pm last night.
“The committee is dealing with these and will report promptly.”
According to the Times, the MPs on the panel dismissed Mr. Johnson’s justification that top officials had informed him that Covid guidelines and standards had been followed in No. 10.
According to the publication, a senior aide actually cautioned him against telling the Commons that social distance rules were followed.
After his abrupt retirement, Mr. Johnson got into a public argument over his resignation honors list with former ally Rishi Sunak.
The Prime Minister claimed that his previous employer pushed him to disregard the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
In his resignation list, Mr. Johnson’s supporters claimed that he had “secretly blocked” the peerages of former cultural secretary Nadine Dorries and other allies.
The former prime minister released a statement saying: “Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish.
“To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac – but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said it is “entirely untrue to say that anyone from No 10 attempted to remove or change” the list, while a Downing Street source claimed the Cabinet Office had made it clear to Mr. Johnson that there is no re-vetting procedure.
Despite the Privileges Committee’s anticipated findings this week, Mr. Johnson vowed, paraphrasing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, “I’ll be back.”
Mr. Johnson stated in the Daily Express that “We must completely deliver on Brexit and the 2019 pledge. At the subsequent election, we must destroy Labour.
“Nothing less than absolute victory and total Brexit will do – and as the great Arnold Schwarzenegger said, I’ll be back.”
The statement was reminiscent of Mr. Johnson’s sign-off during his final appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions last year, when he told MPs, “Hasta la vista, baby”—the catchphrase used by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg character in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
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