MPs from the Commons Privileges Committee will carry out a site visit to Downing Street and demand No 10 hand over evidence, including WhatsApp, photos and diary entries, as they investigate whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament over Partygate.
The commission, chaired by Harriet Harman, a long-serving Labor MP but with a majority of Conservative members, has written to Johnson with a list of evidence they would like to examine.
Includes diaries for eight specified dates when events took place; information packages for the Prime Minister’s speeches in Parliament between December 2021 and May 2022; and photos for the dates listed, including by Johnson’s photographer, Andy Parsons.
Harman and her colleagues have also written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Keyes, asking him to draw the attention of Cabinet officers to their call for evidence and promising to “carry out an on-the-spot visit”.
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The evidence they are requesting also includes logs for number 10; any legal advice given to Johnson or his office regarding the events held on the eight dates; and the number of civil servants at each grade who were disciplined for the lockout break rallies.
Johnson has repeatedly assured MPs in the House of Commons that “guidance is being followed and rules are being followed at all times” in Downing Street during the pandemic.
When video surfaced of his then-press secretary Allegra Stratton joking with colleagues about a “cheese and wine” gathering last December, Johnson said he was “shocked.”
However, after senior civil servant Sue Gray described a drinking culture in isolation that included spilling red wine and vomiting, Johnson admitted he had briefly attended some events to give farewell speeches to departing staff, but said, that it was his duty.
But former colleagues suggest he witnessed some of the acts in question and sometimes encouraged staff to relax with a drink – and that No 10 was too young not to know what was going on.
The commission is scheduled to begin oral hearings in September. He has significant powers over sitting MPs – Johnson can be removed from the House of Commons if he is found to have misled the House or failed to cooperate, for example – but few possible sanctions against former members.
Johnson’s allies said he intended to remain in parliament as a backbencher, holding his successor’s feet to the fire on issues such as reconciliation and the conflict in Ukraine. But many Tory MPs expect him to follow the example of David Cameron, who said after the 2016 referendum that he would stay but step down once his successor, Theresa May, is appointed.
Johnson received only one fixed penalty notice following the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into Partygate, for attending a cabinet birthday party in June 2020. Rishi Sunak, the Tory leadership contender and chancellor at the time, was fined for the same event.
Johnson remains unrepentant about Partygate, with his director of communications, Guto Hari, telling ITV News on Thursday that the outgoing prime minister had “taken the brunt of the bad behavior of others”.
He also claimed that former Downing Street aides had “devoted their lives to bringing down the Prime Minister”.
A Number 10 spokesman said the Prime Minister was prepared to assist the committee in its investigation. “We have recently received these letters and requests which we will now look into properly,” they said. “As we have said before, we will assist the committee with their enquiries, but once we have had time to look at the letters and requests that you have seen this morning, we will set out our response to the committee in due course of course.”
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