Boris Johnson persists and signs: he didn't lie. The former British Prime Minister was heard on Wednesday March 22 by a parliamentary committee for the so-called "partygate" affair, these parties held in Downing Street in the midst of a pandemic.
Faced with the barrage of questions that were hurled at him for more than three hours, the 58-year-old former Conservative leader did not let go. "I'm here to tell you, hand on heart, that I didn't lie to Parliament," he said at the start of that televised hearing.
The stakes are high for the former leader whose future in politics could be threatened. If the committee of seven MPs, including four Tories, concludes that he intentionally lied to Parliament about the Downing Street parties during the lockdown, Boris Johnson risks losing his MP seat.
A few silences and hesitations
The boozy parties in Downing Street during the Covid pandemic, revealed in the press over several months, had angered the British. Then strictly confined, they had denounced an intolerable "double weight and two measures".
Before the hearing, the commission had traced in a 110-page document the official statements of Boris Johnson and what was happening then in the first place of British power. In May 2020, Mr. Johnson called on "the whole country to obey the rules", but a few days later took part in a garden party. On June 10, he "urges everyone to continue to exercise restraint and follow the rules" and then attends a birthday party hosted for him by his wife Carrie on the 19th. And, in November 2020, at a small party, still in Downing Street, he quips that "it's probably the least respectful gathering of social distancing in the whole of the UK".
On Wednesday, the commission released photos of the various rallies, testimonies, extracts from statements from the time of Boris Johnson, putting him face to face with his contradictions. Faced with the evidence put forward, he tried to answer point by point, despite some silences and hesitations. "At all times, I have been completely transparent to Parliament," he said. “I apologize for inadvertently misleading Parliament, but to say I did so deliberately is totally untrue. »
No regrets
The parliamentary committee, accused by Boris Johnson's supporters of having embarked on a witch hunt, must determine whether he deliberately lied in the House of Commons, in particular when he claimed in December 2021 before MPs that " the rules were followed all the time” during the pandemic.
"I accept that perfect social distancing was not observed [at Downing Street], but that does not mean that what we were doing was incompatible with the rules", defended Mr Johnson, who did not expressed no regrets. Throughout the hearing, the former prime minister, whose defense cost taxpayers more than 220,000 pounds sterling (249,000 euros) according to British media, pleaded good faith.
MPs will vote on any penalties he could face, including a suspension which, if longer than ten days, could trigger a by-election in his constituency, where his majority is slim.
