Explained | Boris Johnson's Partygate verdict by House of Commons privileges committee

The jury of the House of Commonsprivileges committee is out onformer UK prime minister and Tory leader Boris Johnson in relation to the infamous Partygate row which quickly snowballed into a scandal whose avalanche pushed the Conservative populist out of Downing Street.

The privileges committee report said that Johnson should be denied automatic access to parliament for intentionally misleading lawmakers over rule-breaking Covid lockdown parties.

Johnson called the findings "rubbish" and accused thecommittee members of waging a vendetta against him.

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"I believed, correctly, that these events were reasonably necessary for work purposes. We were managing a pandemic," he said in a statement.

He said the report marked a "dreadful day" for members of parliament (MP) and for democracy. "This decision means that no MP is free from vendetta, or expulsion on trumped up charges by a tiny minority who want to see him or her gone from the Commons," he said.

He accused the committee of using mystical powers to see things that he had not seen at Downing Street, when, he said, he was duty-bound to thank staff who were departing or for their work on COVID-19. The committee did not accept his defence.

The privileges committee, however, rejected Johnson's defence that the gatherings were within the rules and that his advisers had supported his belief.

Also watch |Boris Johnson lashes out at Partygate investigation as he quits as MP

Instead, it said, Johnson was "deliberately disingenuous when he tried to reinterpret his statements to the House to avoid their plain meaning and reframe the clear impression that he intended to give".

It said that was Johnson still a member of parliament, it would have recommended a suspension from the House of Commons for 90 days.

What is the privileges committee?

Committees are bodies in the parliament which examine issues such as laws or policies in more detail.

The House of Commons Privileges Committee investigates cases that "may prevent or hinder" the work of Parliament.

Boris Johnson Partygate Privileges Committee: The members

The privileges committee, whose report on the Partygate scandal was published on June 15, was constituted of four Conservative PartyMPs (Sir Bernard Jenkin, Sir Charles Walker, Andy Carter and Alberto Costa), two members are the Labour Party (Harriet Harman and Yvonne Fovargue) and one representative of the Scottish Nationalist Party (Allan Dorans).

The rules state the chair has to be a member of the official opposition party. Harriet Harman of the Labour Party was unanimously elected to the post in June 2022.

The Partygate scandal: Privileges Committee's findings

The committee accused Johnson of being "complicit in a campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation" towards them.

The more than 100-page report details six events held at Downing Street, the prime minister's offices and residence.

"We conclude that in deliberately misleading the House, Johnson committed a serious contempt," the committee said: "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 (of Commons, the lower house of parliament)."

It recommended that he should not be entitled to a former member’s pass, which enables most former prime ministers and former lawmakers to gain automatic access to parliament.

What does it mean?

Its conclusions have been described as a new low for Boris Johnson, who in 2019, led the governing Conservatives to a landslide election victory. The stand-off will do little to heal the deep divisions in the Conservative Party.

What next?

The UK Parliament will consider the committee's recommendation on Monday.Johnson, however,had already quit as a member of parliament last week before the report's publication after reportedly seeing an advance copy of the same.

Boris Johnson was widely criticised for describing the committee as "a kangaroo court" in his resignation statement.

Johnson's conduct was referred to the committee after a vote in the House of Commons in April 2022. It did not call for evidence until June 2022, once the police investigation into Partygate had finished.

Opposition's reaction

The Labour Party said the report was "damning".

"While Rishi Sunak is distracted with the ongoing Tory soap opera people are crying out for leadership on the issues that matter to them," said Thangam Debbonaire, a member of Labour's top team was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The Partygate scandal spelt the beginning of the end of Johnson'stenure as prime minister.

A rebellion in his governing Conservative Party last year followed, when ministers resigned en masse, forcing him in July to say he would step down.

He left office in September and was succeeded by Liz Truss at 10, Downing Street.

Truss, too, resigned shortly afterwards, paving the way for current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

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