In its highly anticipated investigation, the committee also recommended the former PM serve a 90-day suspension from parliament.
A scathing report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee found that Johnson’s actions and his response to the committee were such a flagrant violation of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament. While a condemning indictment of the former prime minister’s conduct, the recommendation is largely symbolic because Johnson angrily quit as a lawmaker Friday after the committee informed him of its conclusions.
In the highly anticipated report, published this morning, the committee found that Mr Johnson:
• Misled the house on multiple occasions
• Committed further contempt in his conduct by impugning the committee – thereby undermining the democratic process of the House
• Was complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee
In a further sanction, the committee also recommended that Mr Johnson should not be granted a former member’s pass to parliament following his resignation as an MP. Read Report
Johnson, 58, described the committee as a “kangaroo court” that conducted a “witch hunt” to drive him out of Parliament. A majority of the panel’s seven members come from Johnson’s Conservative Party.
“The committee now says that I deliberately misled the House, and at the moment I spoke I was consciously concealing from the House my knowledge of illicit events,” Johnson said in a heated statement released in response. “This is rubbish. It is a lie. In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the Committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts.”
The report is just the latest episode in the “partygate” scandal that has distracted lawmakers since local news organizations revealed that members of Johnson’s staff held a series of parties in 2020 and 2021 when such gatherings were prohibited by pandemic restrictions. The full House of Commons will now debate the committee’s report and decide whether it concurs with the panel’s findings and recommended sanctions.
The committee also said Johnson should not be granted a pass to Parliament’s grounds.
