Boris Johnson is risking his political future on the gallows of Partygate. With millions of Britons as witnesses on television, the former premier has found himself in the position to prove to a parliamentary committee that he did not deliberately lie in the House of Commons when he repeatedly said that Covid rules had been respected "at all times" in Downing Street.

"With my hand on my heart, I did not lie to Parliament," Johnson declared, his countenance serious, reading verbatim the document prepared by his lawyer Lord David Pannick. Johnson said that his statements before the House of Commons were made "in good faith" and that he himself corrected them, apologized and assumed "full responsibility" months later after the internal investigation and the police investigation of the Partygate.

The chairwoman of the Privileges Committee, Labour's Harriet Harman, recalled at the outset the "value of truth in the functioning of a parliamentary democracy". Harman recalled how Johnson faces a possible sanction (including temporary suspension as an MP) if the committee determines that the former premier lied "intentionally" or "thermarily" before Parliament.

Johnson appeared before the seven members of the Committee of Privileges (four of them, conservatives) and was forced to listen to his own and repeated statements in December, and then to swear before the Biblida that he will tell "the truth and the whole truth".

In his defense arguments contained in 52 pages, Johnson claimed to have acted "in good faith" when he made those statements, although he acknowledged having "accidentally" misled Parliament. The former premier said he had not received any written recommendation warning that rules could be violated in what he considered "work meetings" within Downing Street.

"It is now clear that on a number of occasions there were meetings at No. 10 that, however they started, went beyond what was reasonably necessary for the job," Johnson admitted. "Those events shouldn't have happened, it fills me with sadness to know they happened and I regret that they did."

Scotland Yard opened an investigation and ultimately imposed a total of 126 fines, including a £50 fine on Johnson himself, for breaching Covid rules. The former prime minister retaliated by claiming that the occasion on which he was fined, on the occasion of his birthday in June 2020, was not properly a "party", there was not even a cake and they did not sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

The photos of that "meeting", with Johnson lifting a can and the table full of drinks and food, was provided as evidence before the members of the committee, who expressed their surprise at the fact that Johnson did not prohibit such meetings out of simple common sense and in compliance with the social distancing imposed by his own Gonierno. and without needing to be reminded by his advisers.

Former Cabinet Secretary Simon Case told the Privileges Committee that he did not receive any order from the premier to ban such social gatherings while Covid restrictions were in place. Former personal secretary Martin Reynolds acknowledged that he even recommended Johnson not to tell Parliament that "the rules were respected at all times."

Johnson said that before the internal investigation by senior union Sue Gray, there was "a universal belief in the number 10 that the rules had been followed." The former premier said he was "deeply dismayed" when the police investigation concluded with the imposition of dozens of fines for the excesses committed in those "encounters": "I understand the anger of the public and I will continue to apologize for what happened under my watch."

The special session of four was however suddenly interrupted by the vote in the plenary of Parliament on one of the points contained in the Windsor Agreement: the so-called Stormont Brake, which gives powers to the local Assembly of Northern Ireland to be able to block future community laws on its territory. Johnson asked permission to go to vote with the seven members of the committee that will make their decision public in the first half of May.

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