London, March 22: Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson began testifying on Wednesday at a crucial hearing on whether he misled Parliament about lockdown parties.
Johnson denies deliberately lying, but if found to have done so, he could face suspension or even lose his seat in Parliament.
Johnson is being questioned by the House of Commons standards committee over his statements about rule-breaking parties in government buildings during the coronavirus pandemic. He told the committee after taking an oath on a Bible that events that broke the government’s rules were wrong and “I bitterly regret it,” but added: “hand on heart … I did not lie to the House.” Johnson acknowledges that his insistence that the rules were followed at all times turned out to be untrue.
But he says he never “knowingly or recklessly” misled Parliament.
“You have found nothing to show that I was warned in advance that events in No. 10 (Downing St.) were illegal,” he told the committee in an opening statement. Expected to last several hours, the hearing is a moment of peril for a politician whose career has been a roller coaster of scandals and comebacks.
If the House of Commons Committee of Privileges concludes Johnson lied deliberately, he could be suspended or even lose his seat in Parliament.
That would likely end hopes of one more comeback for the 58-year-old politician, who led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in 2019 but was forced out by his own party in July 2022 after getting mired in scandals over money, ethics and judgment.
In an interim report this month, the committee – made up of Conservative and opposition lawmakers – said evidence strongly suggested that it would have been “obvious” to Johnson that gatherings in his Downing Street offices in 2020 and 2021 broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.
Johnson acknowledged on Tuesday that his repeated reassurances to Parliament that the rules were followed at all times “did not turn out to be correct.” But he said he “did not intentionally or recklessly mislead” lawmakers. (AP)
