On Thursday morning, a long-awaited investigation that claims Boris Johnson deceived Parliament with his partygate denials will be released.
The Privileges Committee’s findings on whether the former prime minister misled MPs inadvertently or on purpose by denying lockdown regulations were breached in No. 10 will be made public following a 14-month study.
After receiving the committee’s decision on Friday, Mr. Johnson abruptly resigned from his position as an MP, denouncing it as a “kangaroo court” and ranting against it in the process.
Due to the resignation of the former Conservative leader, he won’t have to serve the lengthy punishment that is probably going to be suggested.
He could have called a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip electorate if it had been at least 10 days and had Commons approval.
His decision to resign prevented such a result since Rishi Sunak will face a significant electoral challenge when his voters cast their ballots next month.
Nigel Adams, a close ally of Mr. Johnson’s, has announced his resignation. His staunch backer Nadine Dorries has also said she will leave, but her requests for information about why she was refused a peerage before she formally resigns as British MP seem likely to extend the contest for the Prime Minister in the by-election.
The 30,000-word report from the Privileges Committee is anticipated to be released on Thursday at roughly 9 a.m.
Once it is published, Mr. Johnson has said he will make his “views clear.”
On the eve of publication, he made a last-ditch request for the resignation of the panel’s most senior Conservative member in an effort to denigrate the panel’s Tory majority.
After the Guido Fawkes website revealed the MP had attended a drinks party in Parliament while Covid restrictions were in effect in 2020, he accused Sir Bernard Jenkin of “monstrous hypocrisy” and called him out.
The ex-premier’s “typical distraction tactic,” according to Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, “doesn’t change the fact that he broke the law and lied about it.”
According to The Financial Times, Mr. Johnson will be found to have violated the law “multiple” times, including by releasing some of the preliminary findings of the investigation in his resignation letter from last week.
According to the Times, the MPs on the inquiry dismissed his 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.
The seven-member committee’s recommendations may be put to a vote in the Commons the following week.
Less than a year after leaving No. 10, Mr. Johnson would get a harsh reprimand from a majority vote in favour of the motion.
According to the FT, the committee plans to express concerns about MPs who have opposed the investigation without naming individuals.
Home Office Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and other Conservative former Cabinet members who called it a “kangaroo court” disagreed that the MPs should be censured.
“Although I don’t characterise the committee in those terms, I think people are free to express their opinions,” he told ITV’s Peston.
“I don’t think we should be trying to sort of muzzle MPs.”
Senior Tory MP Caroline Nokes stated on the same programme that “the psychodrama of what’s going on with the former minister, the chaos of these by-elections” were a “distraction” from the major problems the nation is currently facing.
