Partygate report: Verdict on Boris Johnson lying to parliament to be published

MPs will publish their long-awaited report on Thursday into whether Boris Johnson lied to parliament over partygate, days after he dramatically quit after receiving the verdict . The Privileges Committee will release its findings after a 14-month investigation into whether the former prime minister committed a contempt of parliament by misleading MPs either recklessly or deliberately by denying lockdown rules were broken in No 10 Downing Street. The Privileges Committee report is expected to be released about 9am on Thursday and to be about 30,000 words long. Mr Johnson has indicated that he will make his "views clear" once the findings are made public. But he has already railed against the committee, calling it a "kangaroo court", and quit as an MP on Friday after receiving its verdict, saying it was “determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament”. The Financial Times has reported that Mr Johnson will be found to have committed several contempts of parliament, including disclosing some of its draft findings in his resignation statement last week. The MPs on the panel have rejected his defence that senior officials had advised him that Covid rules and guidance had been followed in No 10, according to the report. The former Conservative leader 's resignation means he will not serve the lengthy suspension likely to be recommended. If it was at least 10 days and approved by the Commons, then a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency could have been triggered. His decision to quit pre-empted such an outcome, with his constituents to go to the polls next month in a major electoral challenge for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Speaking to Radio 4 early on Thursday, the director for The Institute for Government, Hannah White, said it was important that the House had an opportunity to take a view on the conclusions drawn by the committee. “I think once we see the report today and once the government schedules time for the House to debate and vote on it, is we will see whether it’s just a few MPs who think what is in the report or whether it is endorsed by all of Mr Johnson’s colleagues,” she said. Mr Johnson's ally Nigel Adams also stepped down and supporter Nadine Dorries announced that she will go too, although her demands for answers about why she was denied a peerage before she formally quits as an MP look likely to prolong the by-election struggle for the prime minister. In a last-ditch attempt to disparage the Tory-majority panel on the eve of publication, Mr Johnson called for its most senior Conservative member to resign. He accused Sir Bernard Jenkin of "monstrous hypocrisy" after the Guido Fawkes website reported the MP had gone to a drinks party in parliament while Covid restrictions were in place in 2020. Ms White told Radio 4: “It’s certainly not a contempt, as Mr Johnson has alleged, because there is no indication that [Sir Bernard] has misled the House. But the allegation is that he may have breached lockdown rules. Those rules, of course, if there was a breach, would be for the police to investigate.” Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Mr Johnson's call was a "typical distraction tactic" from the former premier "that doesn't change the fact he broke the law and lied about it". A senior aide in fact warned him against claiming to the Commons that social distancing guidelines were observed, the newspaper reported. A vote could be held on the seven-person committee's conclusions in the Commons next week. A majority vote in favour would amount to a significant rebuke for Mr Johnson less than a year after he left No 10. In his resignation letter, Mr Johnson claimed the report from the seven-person committee was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”. Tobias Ellwood, Tory MP and chairman of the defence select committee in the House of Commons, on Thursday said Mr Johnson is “looking increasingly desperate”. Mr Ellwood said the “public pantomime” surrounding the former prime minister is a distraction from Rishi Sunak’s agenda and vision for the country. “It’s time to draw a line and move forward,” he told Sky News. “And I hope the release of this publication today will allow us to do that.” Mr Ellwood said it appears to be Mr Johnson’s “long term intention” to make a return to frontline politics. Allies of the former Tory leader have predicted the findings of the report will turn Mr Johnson into a “martyr”. A Tory MP was quoted by The Guardian as saying Mr Johnson “isn’t planning on going quietly” and “would burn Parliament to the ground around him”. Speaking early on Thursday, Mr Sunak said he was not handed an advance copy of the report. He said the findings of the committee will be matters for the House of Commons “and Parliament will deal with them in the normal way that it does”. Asked if he felt frustrated by his former boss’s interventions in recent days, Mr Sunak said: “No, I’m just getting on with delivering for the country.” The committee is expected to raise concerns about MPs who have criticised the investigation, but not name them, according to The Financial Times . Home Office Minister Chris Philp argued that the MPs, including Tory former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who branded it a "kangaroo court", should not be censured. "Although I don't characterise the committee in those terms, I think people are free to express their opinions," he told ITV's Peston . "I don't think we should be trying to sort of muzzle MPs." Senior Tory MP Caroline Nokes told the same programme that "the psychodrama of what's going on with the former minister, the chaos of these by-elections" were a "distraction" from the big issues facing the country.

Partygate report: Verdict on Boris Johnson lying to parliament to be published

The former UK prime minister dramatically quit as an MP after receiving the verdict