[1andrew1]

Surely not!

Johnson may have misled Parliament over parties, say the Priviliges Committee

Boris Johnson may have misled Parliament over Partygate on four occasions, MPs investigating his conduct say.

Evidence strongly suggests breaches of coronavirus rules would have been "obvious" to Mr Johnson, the privileges committee said in an update.

On Friday, the committee published its initial report, including some previously unseen photos of Downing Street parties and a number of WhatsApp messages from officials.

The report highlighted four occasions where Mr Johnson may have misled parliament:

• When he told the Commons on 8 December 2021 no rules or guidance had been broken in Number 10, after Ms Gray and the Met Police had "already come to the conclusion that was not correct"
• When, in the same statement, he relied upon statements from his advisers that the rules had not been broken instead of using other evidence available to him
• When he failed to tell the Commons about his own "personal knowledge" of the gatherings where the rules or guidance had been broken
• When he gave the impression that there needed to be an investigation by Ms Gray to establish whether any rules had been broken

The report says Mr Johnson "did not correct" misleading statements he made in the Commons at the "earliest opportunity", as would have been expected from an MP.

The report found "evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings".

It also said there was "evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64836425