Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK parliament over Partygate: report

LONDON, June 15 (Xinhua)

Boris Johnson, former prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK), deliberately misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee of Privileges of the House of Commons (lower house of parliament) said in a report on Thursday.

"We have concluded that in deliberately misleading the House Mr. Johnson committed a serious contempt," the report said.

Since last year, the cross-party committee has been investigating whether Johnson had willfully misled parliament over Partygate.

"The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government.

There is no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House."

The committee also concluded Johnson would have been suspended from the House for 90 days if he had not quit as a member of parliament (MP).

This period far exceeds the time needed to trigger a recall petition and possible by-election for his seat.

Johnson announced his resignation as an MP last week with immediate effect after receiving a letter from the committee.

The committee recommended that Johnson not be given a former member's pass granting access to parliament that MPs are usually entitled to when they stand down from the House of Commons.

The committee also concluded that Johnson was "complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee." "This report is a charade," Johnson said on Thursday.

Johnson was fined by the Metropolitan Police in April last year for attending rule-breaking parties during the COVID-19 lockdown.

He was forced to resign as prime minister in July last year over a string of scandals, including Partygate.

When revelations of the parties at Downing Street in 2020 and 2021 first emerged in late 2021, Johnson initially said that no rules had been broken.

He later apologized and said that he mistook those parties for work events. In evidence given to the Committee of Privileges in March, Johnson admitted misleading the parliament but denied doing it on purpose.