A British parliamentary committee has published evidence submitted by former prime minister Boris Johnson defending himself in an inquiry into whether he intentionally misled MPs about parties held during Covid-19 lockdowns.
Parliament’s Committee of Privileges, which has been looking into statements Mr Johnson made to parliament in December 2021, said last week that he would also provide oral evidence to the committee in a televised session on tomorrow.
Mr Johnson says in his evidence to the Privileges Committee that he accepts he misled the House of Commons when he said lockdown rules had been followed in No 10 but insisted the statements were made “in good faith”.
He wrote: “So I accept that the House of Commons was misled by my statements that the Rules and Guidance had been followed completely at No 10.
“But when the statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time. I did not intentionally or recklessly mislead the House on December 1 2021, December 8 2021, or on any other date. I would never have dreamed of doing so.”
He conceded in his evidence to the Privileges Committee that his statements to Parliament “did not turn out to be correct”, but insisted he corrected the record at “the earliest opportunity”.
“It is of course true that my statements to Parliament that the Rules and Guidance had been followed at all times did not turn out to be correct, and I take this opportunity to apologise to the House for that,” he said.
“As soon as the Sue Gray investigation and the Metropolitan Police investigation had been concluded, I corrected the record. I believed – and I still believe – that this was the earliest opportunity at which I could make the necessary correction.
“It was not fair or appropriate to give a half-baked account, before the facts had been fully and properly established, including into many events about which I had no personal knowledge.”
An official inquiry into gatherings at Downing Street and Whitehall during Covid-19 restrictions said the “senior leadership” in Mr Johnson’s government must “bear responsibility” for the culture which led to coronavirus lockdown rules being broken.
The report by Sue Gray said the public would be “dismayed” by a series of breaches of coronavirus rules in No 10 and Westminster.
It examined 16 gatherings during 2020 and 2021 and Ms Gray repeated her finding from an interim report that there had been a failure of leadership.
Additional reporting PA
Johnson accepts he misled MPs over Covid gatherings
Source: Viral Trends Report
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