Partygate: Boris Johnson is 'a serial liar'

it was undoubtedly a contempt when he released details about their report when he had received them in confidence so that he could respond to them that's just another contempt by Mr Johnson he is just plays fast and loose with anything which he doesn't wish to be constrained by and I think that's what comes out of this report I've obviously only had time to read the summary uh in in the time available since it was published but it's completely damning I thought the most damning thing was when he stood up in the House of Commons and said that he'd been given assurances that the rules had been followed at number 10 when he'd been specifically told by his civil servants it was an assurance he couldn't give excuse me let's um share with our viewers some of the things that he has said in a three-page report he released a lengthy statement uh the key excerpts the committee now says that I deliberately misled the house and at the moment I spoke I was consciously concealing from the house my knowledge of illicit events this is rubbish it is a lie in order to reach this deranged conclusion the committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd or contradicted by the facts he went on to say about the committee's decision that their argument can be boiled down to look at this picture that's Boris Johnson with a glass in his hand he must have known that the event was illegal therefore he lied that is a load of complete tripe that picture was me in my place of work trying to encourage and thank my officials in a way that I believed was crucial for the government and for the country as a whole and in a way which I believe to be wholly within the rules he ends by saying this this report is a charade I was wrong to believe in the committee or its good faith the terrible truth is that it is not I who has Twisted the truth to suit my purposes it is Harriet Harman and her committee this is a dreadful day for MPS and for democracy this decision means that no MP is free from vendetta or expulsion on trump top charges by a tiny minority who want to see him or her gone from the commons woof notes on that well it is a dreadful day to see a prime minister a former prime minister attacking Parliament uh when previously he said that the sovereignty of Parliament and Parliament as an institution was so important to him and that's what I find extraordinary with with Mr Johnson everything is fine everything is important until he decides it isn't the truth is this committee on the evidence has done its very best to look at the evidence of Mr Johnson's misdoings and frankly the evidence against Mr Johnson as prime minister is overwhelming over partygate that he misled the house the issue is never did he have parties that's one thing the issue is did he mislead the House of Commons in answering questions at the dispatch box in a manner that was going to bring that brought him into the contempt and it's absolutely abundantly clear that that happened and as I say it's not just a difference of interpretation of was I standing upholding a glass at an event which I didn't think was a party but I thought was a work event it's the fact that the committee has been able to establish that when he came to the dispatch box he made statements which he knew were disagreed with by his own officials who had said well you can't say that I I think that's that for me that's one of the most damning aspects of this report but overall Mr Johnson just Chucks up smoke screens in all directions so as I say here's somebody who says Parliament is really important after all there's a centerpiece of his brexit wasn't it parliamentary Parliament sovereignty must be restored but when actually the House of Commons exercises its Sovereign right to discipline and to investigate A Member of Parliament who might be in contempt then it's all complete rubbish he says it's a vendetta against him he says that he was rallying the troops he had a glass in his hand because he was raising a glass to in support of those that have been working tirelessly through the pandemic and in addition to that he says look at what the Metropolitan Police said you know they did find me guilty on one case that was a piece of birthday cake uh at the start of a meeting looking at some of the pictures as we're talking to you that have actually been highlighted in the report but the point is did he mislead the House of Commons as to his motivation when he turned up to these meetings um I'm not in a position to comment although I have to say some of the meetings look rather like parties when you look at the photographs they don't really look like work events but even assuming that he was put on the spot and asked that the House of Commons dispatch box what was going on and what he replied included quite deliberate lies you can't just brush that under the carpet ministers are supposed to give honest accounts to the House of Commons on facts and he didn't do it um what do you make of him uh swiping at members of the committee including Bernard Jenkin and indeed the chairman of the committee well it seems to me to be all over peace with the way Mr Johnson behaves at this committee is the mechanism it's the only mechanism constitutionally by which the House of Commons can protect its Privileges and enforce the standards it expects from MPS towards them that's what we have and yet suddenly Mr Johnson just thinks that this is something which he can criticize there isn't a shred of evidence that this committee has acted in a deliberately biased fashion against him I served on the standards and privileges committee and my own experience is that when MPS come through the door to work there they do it with a completely non-partisan way and the people he's most critical of are people who in the past were in fact his political allies and I think that's quite telling because the idea that they should have a bias against him seems to me to be rather improbable I'm just hearing um if you'll indulge me for a second um from the liberal Democrats they have been responding and they've called on Rishi sunat to strip Boris Johnson of his ex-priministers allowance following the publication uh the former prime ministers are entitled to claim up to 115 000 pounds a year to fund office costs for life they say that is inappropriate and it should be cut by Rishi sunak what do you think well I think one has to think about that I I think I'm going to comment on it uh because ex-prime ministers are entitled to the allowance and he is an ex-prime Minister but I have to say his overall behavior in the course of the last week as I say breaking the confidence of the committee by partly releasing at their findings in a way that he could spin to his best advantage and now the serial attack on members of the committee does raise a whole series of issues about his Fitness for any form of public role and so I'm basically something which Mr sunak may wish to consider but I wouldn't want I wouldn't want to uh pronounce on that and just a final thought before I let you go the committee itself making the point that this is unprecedented that no previous prime minister has been found to be deliberately misleading the house uh yeah this is completely unprecedented but then Mr Johnson is a completely unprecedented figure after all we know that he's a man who is a Serial liar and he lies not only to protect himself he also lies to smear other people I've watched it during the course of his career and he did it when he was prime minister so seeing that he did it so routinely and regularly in a number of other settings doesn't really come as a surprise that he lied through his back teeth about the circumstances relating to breaches of the rules in number 10 Downing Street can he come back from this I hope not I hope he's gone for good uh the country is much better off without him okay it's good to see you thank you very much for joining us

Channel: Sky News

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Id: RvSnVYKcHR4

Length: 8min 19sec (499 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023