News about “Partygate”: British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted false statements in Parliament regarding the affair, but strictly rejected an intention. The committee responsible could not provide evidence that he knowingly misled Parliament, Johnson said in a written defense released on Tuesday.
If an MP is found to have lied to the House of Commons, they face a suspension, which in turn could result in the loss of their mandate. Johnson, who resigned last summer after a number of scandals under pressure from his party, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before a parliamentary committee examining his actions in the affair.
He accepts that some of his statements “misled the House of Commons” and he apologizes, Johnson said. However, at no time did he want to hide anything, but instead said what he believed to be the truth at the relevant time. He could not have known what the subsequent investigation into the lockdown parties in Downing Street would bring to light, the ex-prime minister said.
A preliminary report by the committee had previously weighed heavily on Johnson. The evidence suggested it must have been “obvious” to the ex-Prime Minister that the illegal lockdown celebrations at Downing Street were breaking corona rules, it said at the time.
Johnson had repeatedly denied any rules were broken at Downing Street. He was fined for attending a lockdown event.
