BORIS Johnson today pleaded “hand on heart” that he did not lie to MPs about illegal lockdown parties in No10.
The ex-PM is currently giving evidence in an explosive four hour hearing of the Privileges Committee.
Boris Johnson is being grilled by the Privileges Committee over whether he lied about lockdown parties
The ex-PM swore on King James’ bible that he’ll only tell the truth during the evidence sessions
The bombshell hearing is set to last four hours
The ex-PM went for a run this morning ahead of the major showdown
During the mega showdown Boris will desperately try and convince the committee’s seven members he didn’t deliberately lie when he told the Commons on multiple occasions that rules were always followed in Downing Street.
The showstopper session opened this afternoon with BoJo swearing on King James’ bible that he’ll only tell the committee the truth.
The ex-PM then launched into an opening statement, where he pleaded his case.
“There were a number of days over a period of 20 months when gatherings took place in Downing Street that went past the point where they could be said to be necessary for work purposes,” the ex-PM said.
“That was wrong. I bitterly regret it.
Mr Johnson added: “When I said that the rules and the guidance had been followed at No10, I say to you hand on heart that I did not lie to the house.
“When those statements were made they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time.”
The ex-PM accused his former aide turned arched nemesis Dominic Cummings of being the only No.10 staffer to accuse him of lying.
He slammed Mr Cummings as having “every motive to lie”.
And he pointed to official No.10 photos of the infamous lockdown parties as evidence he can’t have known they were in breach of guidelines.
Boris said: “To say that we would have held illicit events in No.10 while allowing these events to be immortalized by an official photographer is staggeringly implausible.”
The ex-PM also hit out at the Privileges Committee, accusing its investigation of being “extremely peculiar”.
He argued committee members don’t have a shred of documentary evidence he was warned that rules were being broken.
And the ex-PM suggested the scope of the probe has expanded to investigate whether he lied out of recklessness rather than outright deviousness.
“It would be one thing if the Committee had come here and said here are the emails or WhatsApps that show you were warned about rule-breaking before you made your statements to the House,” he said.
“You haven’t got any such evidence because that never happened. But if you now say instead that it must have been obvious that we were going against the rules and guidance then let’s be clear about what you are saying.”
