A new report into Boris Johnson and Partygate has been released by MPs investigating whether or not the former prime minister lied to parliament.
The privileges committee today published a 24-page document which will be used to question Mr Johnson when he appears before the MPs later this month.
The key lines from the Partygate report include :
Boris Johnson’s communications chief admitted there was a “great gaping hole” in the prime minister’s account of Partygate
Messages show that in response to a suggestion the event is described as “reasonably necessary for work purposes”, his communications chief wrote: “Not sure that one works does it. Also blows another great gaping hole in the PM’s account doesn’t it?”‘
Mr Johnson’s key claim – that all rules were followed – came from a special adviser and was not “a general assurance (that) no guidance or rules were broken”
The report says: “We will consider why he said he had been given repeated assurances when the evidence is that the assertion that all rules were followed was taken primarily from a line-to-take developed by the Director of Communications at No. 10, a special adviser appointed by Mr Johnson, as a response to a media enquiry about specific gatherings rather than having been a general assurance as to the fact that no guidance or rules were broken in No. 10.”
Mr Johnson could also see a notorious gathering point for Downing Street parties during lockdown from the bottom of the stairs leading up to his flat
The report states: “We (the committee) conducted a site visit to No. 10 Downing Street on 21 February 2023, at which we confirmed that a line of sight exists from the bottom of the stairs leading up to what was then Mr Johnson’s flat into the Press Office vestibule where these gatherings took place, and that for Mr Johnson to have been present in the vestibule during the gatherings he would have had to proceed from the staircase through a further intervening anteroom.”
