to be concluded in response to Members’ questions about what had happened and the implications for his position as Prime Minister.[1] He further urged Members to wait for the inquiry’s conclusion in similar terms on 19 January.[2]
128. At PMQs on 12 January 2022, after press stories had appeared concerning the gathering in the garden of No. 10 on 20 May 2020, Mr Johnson told the House that when he had attended that event, he had “believed implicitly that this was a work event”.[3]
129. In response to subsequent questioning from the Leader of the Opposition–which was not limited to the gathering of 20 May but more generally referenced “reports of boozy parties in Downing Street during lockdown” and the assurances Mr Johnson had given the House–Mr Johnson said, “I accept that we should have done things differently on that evening [20 May 2020]. As I have said to the House, I believe that the events in question were within the Guidance and were within the Rules, and that was certainly the assumption on which I operated”.[4]
130. On 19 April 2022 Mr Johnson acknowledged to the House that Covid Rules had not been followed at his birthday gathering on 19 June 2020, for which Mr Johnson and others received Fixed Penalty Notices on 12 April 2022. He stated: “It did not occur to me, then or subsequently, that a gathering in the Cabinet Room just before a vital meeting on covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules […] That was my mistake and I apologise for it unreservedly.”[5]
131. Following the publication of Sue Gray’s report on 25 May 2022, Mr Johnson made a statement to the House. That statement maintained that leaving events for No. 10 staff which Mr Johnson had attended had complied with the Rules and Guidance at the time when he was in attendance. Mr Johnson said:
I am happy to set on the record now that when I came to this House and said in all sincerity that the rules and guidance had been followed at all times, it was what I believed to be true. It was certainly the case when I was present at gatherings to wish staff farewell […] but clearly this was not the case for some of those gatherings after I had left, and at other gatherings when I was not even in the building. So I would like to correct the record— to take this opportunity, not in any sense to absolve myself of responsibility, which I take and have always taken, but simply to explain why I spoke as I did in this House.[6]
The purported assurances
132. At an early stage in our inquiry we asked the Government to supply briefings for PMQs on 1 and 8 December 2021. The briefing pack for 1 December 2021 contains no assurances. The Cabinet Office was unable to provide us with the pack for 8 December.
- ↑ See for example, HC Deb, 12 January 2022, Vol 706 col 564, and col 573; see also Annex 2
- ↑ See for example, HC Deb, 12 January 2022, Vol 707 col 321, and col 323; see also Annex 2
- ↑ HC Deb, 12 January 2022, Vol 706 col 562
- ↑ HC Deb, 12 January 2022, Vol 706 col 564
- ↑ HC Deb, 19 April 2022, Vol 712 col 48
- ↑ HC Deb, 25 May 2022, Vol 715 col 296
