Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him, according to a damning official inquiry that threatens to further tear apart the Conservative party.
The long-awaited report by the privileges committee said the former prime minister would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not quit in rage at its conclusions last week.
The original suspension was due to be 20 days but the committee said his attempts to intimidate it would have increased the punishment.
He was also found to have knowingly misled the committee, breached Commons rules by partially leaking its findings last Friday, and undermined the democratic processes of parliament.
As a result, the cross-party committee recommended Johnson be banned from getting the pass granted to former MPs that allows them privileged access to the Westminster estate.
In concluding that Johnson deliberately – and not just recklessly – misled parliament, the committee cited his repeated and continuing denials over his knowledge of rule-breaking Downing Street gatherings as well as the frequency with which he “closed his mind” to the facts.
“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government,” it said. “He misled the house on an issue of the greatest importance to the house and to the public, and did so repeatedly.”
Soon after the report was published, Johnson accused the committee, which has a Tory majority and a Labour chair, of trying to “bring about what is intended to be the final knife thrust in a protracted political assassination”. He said its findings were “preposterous” and a sign of “desperation”.
Allies of Johnson reacted with fury and pledged to target Conservative members of the committee and Tory MPs who endorse its findings for deselection.
A vote on the findings, to be held on Monday, will be a moment of major jeopardy for Rishi Sunak as Johnson’s explosive reaction threatens to undermine efforts to draw a line under the Partygate scandal and end the vicious infighting that has erupted again in recent days.
The row about the report has already resulted in Johnson and the loyalist Nigel Adams sparking byelections in Uxbridge and Selby on 20 July by standing down, and Nadine Dorries plans to cause another moment of peril for Sunak later in the summer.
Many Tory MPs are likely to endorse the result of the more than year-long inquiry in the free vote – which comes on Johnson’s 59th birthday and three years to the day since the No 10 celebration that led to him being fined by police for breaching coronavirus laws. (Guardian)