Has the British Prime Minister lied regarding celebrations during the Corona lockdowns? A committee of inquiry is to clarify this. A painful defeat for Boris Johnson.
Britain’s House of Commons has voted to set up a committee of inquiry into Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Partygate affair. This is to address the question of whether Johnson lied to MPs regarding his role in the affair. A corresponding motion by the Labor opposition was waved through by MPs on Thursday following several hours of debate without a vote.
For Johnson, this is a painful defeat. That morning he had expressed the hope that his group would postpone the decision. But apparently his own deputies thwarted his plans. Some of his party colleagues even called for his resignation.
Johnson recently denied this. “I don’t think it’s the right thing,” the prime minister told Sky News on Thursday. Several MPs from Johnson’s Tory party had previously called for his resignation. Before the parliamentary investigation begins, the end of the police investigation should be awaited.
Johnson has to pay a fine
After reports of parties in London’s Downing Street during various corona lockdowns in Parliament, Johnson had repeatedly asserted that the rules had always been followed. It later emerged that the prime minister himself had attended several of the meetings in question. In the meantime, he even had to pay a fine imposed by the police. More might follow. Johnson claims he didn’t realize it was a party.
The parliamentary committee is now to clarify whether Johnson deliberately misled parliament – a clear reason for his resignation. The prime minister was not present at the debate on Thursday. Johnson left for a trip to India that night. Attempts by the ruling party to postpone the vote to a later date were dropped by the Conservatives just before the debate began.
The public seems to have already passed the verdict
Opposition leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of abusing the culture of debate in the lower house. According to the rules, MPs are not allowed to accuse each other of lying. Exceptionally, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle temporarily lifted this rule for Thursday’s debate. “The prime minister has stood before this chamber and said things that are not true, counting on not being accused of lying because that’s not allowed,” Starmer said Thursday during the debate.
Public opinion seems to have long since judged Johnson’s sincerity. Nearly 80 percent of British voters believe Johnson lied. This is the result of a survey by the opinion research institute Yougov on behalf of Times Radio, which was published on Thursday. Accordingly, only eight percent of voters believe the conservative head of government. Even among supporters of Johnson’s Tories, a clear majority (61 percent) are convinced that he was untrue. 2,079 voting-age Britons were surveyed on 19 and 20 April.
