Partygate: key moments from Boris Johnson's grilling by MPs

I'm here to say to you hand on heart that I did not lie to the house now everyone knows that there are some features of this proceeding that are extremely peculiar and the utmost respect for you the chair but uh you've said some things about this matter before reading the evidence which are plainly and wrongly prejudicial or prejudge the very issue in which you are adjudicating I agree with what you said at the outset it is your job in which I want to help you to understand why I said what I said to Parliament and whether I deliberately set out to deceive and I emphatically did not if it was obvious to me that these events were contrary to the guidance and the rules then it must have been equally obvious to dozens of others including the most senior officials in the country all of them most of them like me responsible for drawing up the rules and it must have been obvious to others in the building including the current prime minister the picture shows this Gathering it appears to show multiple portals of alcohol in the bottom right hand corner of the photograph would you say that that is strictly necessary for a work event it's it's customary to a safer world to people in this country with a toast I didn't see any sign of drunkenness or or excess and had no knowledge of I don't know why anybody would have been fined for that event I don't know what what happened later on I think the point they that we did every effort to comply with the guidance of the House of Commons and you didn't say that no I'm saying that it follows the guidance completely that we were following the guidance to the best of our ability which was what the guidance provided for and the guidance provides for uh freedoms within the the Practical framework of the operation or the business to decide how you're going to implement the guidance businesses are entitled and asked to decide what practical considerations they wish to give to implementing the guidance bound to say that if you said all that at the time to the House of Commons we probably wouldn't be sitting here but you didn't press conference or Podium saying hands face space whether it was okay for organizations to hold unsocially distanced farewell gatherings in the workplace what would you have said I would have said that it's up to organizations as the guidance says to decide how and they are going to implement the guidance amongst which is of course social distancing where they can't do social distancing uh perfectly they can't maintain two meters or one meters then they're entitled to have mitigations the answer is you would have said it was okay no I I said the answer is that you should do what the guidance says to come up but actually I thought that the leader of the opposition would not bother uh with that story uh again please it is relevant the question is why did you not take proper advice sorry sorry the the the answer is quite simply that over the and I've tried to describe what I felt about these events as they were happening nobody raised with me uh or had any concern before I stood up on on on December the 1st about those events you did not I asked I did see this is complete nonsense I mean complete nonsense I asked the relevant people they were Senior People they'd been working very hard they gave me jackdaw gave me a clear account of what had happened how was the cabinet secretary wasn't there sorry you're wrong because I did ask the cabinet secretary thank you very much I've I much enjoyed our discussion well I I I think it's been a useful I genuinely think it's been a useful discussion and I hope it's clear to the committee uh what was in my heart and my mind on uh December the 1st and December the 8th of um 2021 and May the 25th and universal applications okay thank you to just like

Channel: Guardian News

Views: 184,569

Keywords: boris, boris johnson, christmas party, committee hearing, corona party, coronavirus, covid, covid boris party, covid government lockdown parties, covid locksdown, covid-19, downing street, downing street party, england lockdowns, gdnpfpnewspolitics, gdnpfpnewsuk, gdnpfpnewsworld, inquiry, johnson, johnson parliamentary committee, lawbreaking parties, lockdown, lockdown parties, misleading of parliament, partygate, politics, uk, uk government, uk news, uk politics, world

Id: qJZzxfi76I4

Length: 4min 41sec (281 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 22 2023