Unheard of for British democracy: Boris Johnson was found guilty on Thursday by a parliamentary inquiry of having lied to Parliament in the “partygate” affair when he was in power, pushing the ex-Prime Minister to crying “political assassination”.
The former Tory leader, who is set to turn 59, clapped back his MP seat last week after being notified of the damning findings of a 14-month investigation into Downing Street parties during lockdowns anti covid.
He had then strongly attacked his successor Rishi Sunak and the latter must now manage a heavy enemy determined not to remain in the shadows, who once again let his anger burst on Thursday.
In a long, extremely aggressive press release, he reaffirms that he thinks he has done nothing wrong and denounces the “lie” and the “sick” conclusions of the commission.
He accuses the latter of having wanted to carry “the last stab of a political assassination”: “It is a dark day for the deputies and for democracy. This decision means that no deputy is in the shelter from a vendetta”.
The committee was to determine whether Boris Johnson had lied to Parliament by repeatedly asserting in the House of Commons that all health restrictions had been respected in Downing Street during the Covid. The case has already earned him a fine from the police and was a major factor in his departure from Downing Street last summer.
“There is no precedent of a Prime Minister found guilty of deliberately misleading the House,” the commission concluded. “He misled the House on a matter of the utmost importance to the House and to the public, and he has done so repeatedly.”
The report also denounces Boris Johnson’s very virulent resignation letter, with the accents of Donald Trump, as an “attack on British democratic institutions”.
No longer sitting, Boris Johnson no longer risks much. The commission says it would have recommended a 90-day suspension if he hadn’t walked out, which likely would have triggered a by-election.
The document, which must be debated on Monday by the deputies and then put to the vote, nevertheless asks that the access which the former Prime Ministers have to the premises of the Parliament be withdrawn.
Some Tory MPs close to Boris Johnson have already called for a vote against the report, while Labor opposition number two Angela Rayner compared the ex-leader to “a baby who throws his toys out of the pram because ‘he got caught’.
Boris Johnson “should never again be allowed to run for any term,” reacted the association of victims of Covid-19.
Heard for more than three hours in March, Boris Johnson said “hand on heart” that he had not lied.
A year after his resignation from Downing Street, where he spent three years marred by scandals, his departure prevents any return to power of the former journalist and mayor of London, at least until the legislative elections scheduled for next year.
He reopened the gaping wounds in the Conservative Party, in power for 13 years but largely outpaced by Labor in the polls.
Boris Johnson keeps influential allies there and an important aura with the base for having won a historic victory in the 2019 legislative elections and then carried out Brexit, when the exit from the European Union seemed to be at an impasse.
Hostilities are now publicly declared with the government of Rishi Sunak, his former finance minister already seen as a traitor whose resignation, followed by many others, led to the fall of Mr. Johnson last summer.
Tensions have been reignited in recent days as the list of decorations and appointments bestowed on Boris Johnson, as is tradition for prime ministers after their departure, has been revoked.
If it remains at the center of political and media attention, its real capacity for harm remains uncertain. Only two deputies have imitated him and resigned from Parliament for a week, while some feared a wave of mass departures weakening the government of Rishi Sunak.
06/15/2023 14:03:01 – London (AFP) – © 2023 AFP