A British parliamentary committee has found that former British prime minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament about illegal Covid-19 lockdown parties held during his time in office.

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Former British prime minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over illegal Covid-19 lockdown parties held during his tenure, a parliamentary committee said on Thursday, calling it a “serious contempt”.

The damning verdict of the long-awaited “partygate” report by the privileged committee found that Johnson deliberately misled Parliament several times when it investigated Downing Street parties held on his watch and breached his own blocking rules.

“We have come to the conclusion that by deliberately misleading the House, Mr. Johnson has committed serious contempt,” the cross-party committee’s findings showed.

“There is no precedent for the Prime Minister being found to have deliberately misled the House,” it added.

The 100-page report, which investigated six rallies held at the prime minister’s official residence amid the UK’s tightest Covid restrictions, also concluded that Johnson was complicit in a “campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation” to cover up the circumstances of the cases. Events.

The committee, which is made up of members from both the ruling Conservative Party and the opposition Labor Party, recommended that Johnson should not be entitled to a former MP’s pass, which allows MPs to enter parliament.

She also said that if Johnson were still a member of Parliament, he should be suspended from the House for 90 days. Johnson resigned as a Tory MP last week after seeing an advanced copy of the report. At the time, he accused the cross-party committee of behaving like a “kangaroo court” that was conducting a “political hit” against him.

Bullshit, absurd, deranged

In another declaration On Thursday, he called the findings “unnecessary,” “absurd” and “crazy,” according to Perspective magazine. telegraph. The former prime minister, a staunch Brexiteer, also accused the committee of “prejudiced views” and said the majority of members “voted to remain” in the 2016 Brexit vote.

“The committee now says that I willfully misled the House and knowingly withheld from the House my knowledge of the illegal actions at the time I spoke,” he wrote.

“That’s nonsense. It’s a lie. In order to reach this crazy conclusion, the commission has to say a number of things that are patently absurd or contradicted by fact.”

MPs responsible for drafting the report described Johnson’s comments as a blow against the UK’s democratic institutions.

“This attack on a committee exercising its powers by the democratically elected House itself is tantamount to an attack on our democratic institutions,” the committee said.

The findings of the privileged committee will be discussed by MPs on Monday, Speaker of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt said.

The message follows earlier police investigation into lockdown parties in Downing Street, resulting in fines for both Johnson and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The revelations of Johnson’s involvement in rule-breaking parties was just one of several scandals that plagued his premiership and ultimately led to his resignation last July. But his flouting of public health measures was seen as particularly appalling at a time when Britons are distancing themselves from loved ones to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Following the committee’s findings, UK-based Covid-19 group Bereaved Families for Justice said it was “another somber reminder” of how Johnson had broken his own rules “so he could have a party and laugh” while other families were “saying goodbye”. loved ones via Zoom.”

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