Boris Johnson 'deliberately misled' UK Parliament over 'partygate,' committee says

LONDON -- Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson "deliberately misled" Parliament about rule-breaking parties during the COVID-19 pandemic, a committee of lawmakers said in a scathing report released Thursday.

The House of Commons Privileges Committee also found that Johnson, 58, knowingly misled the committee itself, breached parliamentary rules by leaking the committee's provisional conclusions last week and undermined the parliamentary process. Johnson would have faced a 90-day suspension from Parliament had he not angrily quit as a lawmaker last Friday after being informed of the preliminary findings, according to the report.

Nevertheless, the committee recommend that Johnson be barred from getting the pass granted to former members of Parliament that allows them privileged access to the parliamentary grounds at the Palace of Westminster in central London.

"We have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the House, Mr. Johnson committed a serious contempt,'' the seven-member panel wrote in the report. "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."

The entire House of Commons will now debate and vote on the committee’s findings and recommendations.

The report came on the heels of a yearlong investigation into misleading statements Johnson made to Parliament about the so-called "partygate" scandal, a series of boozy parties held on government property in 2020 and 2021 while such gatherings were prohibited by England's pandemic-related restrictions. London's Metropolitan Police Service ultimately issued more than 100 fines over "partygate," including one to Johnson for attending his own surprise birthday party at his Downing Street residence and office in June 2020, when indoor mixing was barred to stem the spread of COVID-19. He is the first prime minister in U.K. history to have been found guilty of breaking the law while in office.

"For the House to be given misleading information about the conduct of Ministers and officials at the highest level of Government, in the midst of the grave national emergency represented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and in relation to how far those Ministers and officials were observing the severe restrictions which they were instructing the public at large to follow, is a matter of great seriousness," the committee wrote in the report.

Last summer, Johnson survived a vote of confidence brought forward by disgruntled lawmakers in his Conservative Party. However, he announced his resignation as party leader and prime minister a month later after dozens of ministers quit his cabinet in protest of his leadership.

Johnson told the House of Commons Privileges Committee in March that he "honestly believed" the five gatherings he had attended during the pandemic, including his birthday party, were "lawful work gatherings." While Johnson has admitted to misleading lawmakers when he assured them that no rules were violated, he has maintained that he didn't do so deliberately.

In a statement announcing his resignation as a member of Parliament last Friday, Johnson described the committee investigating him as a "kangaroo court" that conducted a "witch hunt."

"I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear -- much to my amazement -- that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament," Johnson said. "Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts."