Today the privileges committee has published its initial report into whether Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons about Partygate. This inquiry does not look at whether gatherings in lockdown happened or not – we know they did. Rather, it is going to investigate whether Johnson was aware such gatherings were taking place and, if he did, whether he ‘knowingly’ lied to the House of Commons when he told MPs that ‘the rules were followed at all times’. It also focuses on why the then prime minister did not correct the record at the earliest opportunity when it became clear that the Covid rules had not been followed at all times. Below is a summary of the top lines from the 24-page report and Johnson’s bullish response, ahead of his evidence session later this month.
Johnson would have seen ‘obvious’ breaches of Covid rules
The report by the privileges committee strongly suggests that breaches of coronavirus rules would have been ‘obvious’ to Johnson. The most obvious examples of this are meetings which the prime minister himself attended, including one on 27 November 2020 at which Johnson made a speech and joked that it was ‘probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now’. At the time, the rules and guidance in force included restrictions on indoor gatherings of two or more people and maintaining social distancing of 2 metres, or 1 metre with risk mitigations in the workplace wherever possible. The report also says that Johnson occasionally joined in drinks gatherings in the No. 10 press office on Friday evenings. It says that:
There is evidence that a culture of drinking in the workplace in some parts of No. 10 continued after Covid restrictions began, and that events such as birthday parties and leaving parties for officials continued in No. 10 despite workplace guidance on social distancing and regulations imposing restrictions on gatherings. In particular, the events that continued included Friday evening drinks gatherings in the press office area. Mr Johnson is said by witnesses to have seen press office gatherings on his way to the No. 10 flat, and to have occasionally joined these gatherings when his attendance had not been planned. We conducted a site visit to No. 10 Downing Street on 21 February 2023, at which we confirmed that a line of sight exists from the bottom of the stairs leading up to what was then Mr Johnson’s flat into the press office vestibule where these gatherings took place, and that for Mr Johnson to have been present in the vestibule during the gatherings he would have had to proceed from the staircase through a further intervening anteroom.
No. 10 struggled to justify the gatherings at the time
The most revealing details of the committee’s report are found in WhatsApps from No. 10 staff during the pandemic. They are listed in the report’s footnotes and make for damning reading. One message in April 2021 makes clear that Downing Street staff knew at the time that some of the gatherings were in likely breach of the Covid rules. An unknown No. 10 official cites a colleague’s concerns ‘about leaks of PM having a piss up and to be fair I don’t think it’s unwarranted’. This was six months before the Mirror and ITV began to report the stories about Partygate.
Even after reports of parties became public, No. 10 struggled to justify them. There’s a revealing exchange from January 2022 in which one official texts Jack Doyle, Boris Johnson’s director of communications about the 19 June 2020 gathering to mark Johnson’s birthday. The unknown official says that ‘I’m trying to do some Q&A, it’s not going well’ to which Doyle replies ‘I’m struggling to come up with a way this one is in the rules in my head.’
In response to a suggestion that they describe the event as ‘reasonably necessary for work purposes’, Doyle replies ‘not sure that one works does it. Also blows another great gaping hole in the PM’s account doesn’t it?’ Separately, Doyle stated elsewhere about the Johnson birthday gathering that ‘Haven’t heard any explanation of how it’s in the rules’.
As the report notes, ‘those who were advising Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules’.
How the Partygate defence was crafted
On 8 December 2021, Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that: ‘The guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times.’ The WhatsApps in this report shine a light on how Johnson’s team crafted this defence, which has prompted the claim that he has lied to the House.
Eight days later, the Daily Mirror had asked No. 10 about two parties that had taken place on November 27 and December 18 2020. Jack Doyle, the PM’s director of communications, asked an official that day, ‘Can you pull together our best possible defence on this one. I don’t know what we say about the flat.’ The official replied, ‘Don’t we just do a generic line and not get into whether there was a drinks thing or not. “Covid rules have been followed at all times” or something.’
Doyle responded, ‘I think we have to say something as robust as we can manage but see what you think.’ The assertion that Covid rules were followed was therefore initially developed as a media line to take and was formulated by a special adviser, rather than a civil servant. It was this line that Johnson repeated a week later in the House of Commons.
Boris’s evidence session will be blockbuster
Boris Johnson will be giving evidence to the committee in the week beginning 20 March. He has today released a bullish statement too, saying that: ‘It is clear from this report that I have not committed any contempt of parliament. It is also clear that what I have been saying about this matter from the beginning has been vindicated.’ How exactly can that insistence on innocence be squared with the detailed evidence in this report? That’s for the committee to find out.
It’s notable that Johnson’s lengthy statement also points the finger at Sue Gray, who is referenced 26 times in the committee’s report: ‘It is surreal to discover that the committee proposes to rely on evidence culled and orchestrated by Sue Gray, who has just been appointed chief of staff to the Leader of the Labour party.’ Clearly, Johnson and his allies hope that public attention will shift to Gray rather than the evidence contained in this report.
Comments