Summary
1. On 21 April 2022, the House of Commons, without division, referred to the Committee of Privileges a matter concerning the conduct of the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, that is, whether he had misled the House and whether that conduct amounted to a contempt.
2. This inquiry goes to the very heart of our democracy. Misleading the House is not a technical issue, but a matter of great importance. Our democracy is based on people electing Members of Parliament not just to enable a government to be formed and supported but to scrutinise legislation and hold the Executive to account for its actions. Our democracy depends on MPs being able to trust that what Ministers tell them in the House of Commons is the truth. If Ministers cannot be trusted to tell the truth, the House cannot do its job and the confidence of the public in our democracy is undermined. When a Minister makes an honest mistake and then corrects it, that is democracy working as it should.
3. On 19 July 2022 the Committee resolved how it would conduct its inquiry. On 21 July 2022 the Committee published a report setting out its procedure. The Committee has at all times followed the law and customs of Parliament. The fundamental procedure is governed by the standing orders and precedent of the House. In its procedural resolution the Committee set out a detailed process designed to be both rigorous in its inquiries and fair to Mr Johnson. Neither the Government nor any Member has proposed to the House that the procedure should be altered or set out how this would be done. The answers to the opinions of Mr Johnson’s legal advisers criticising that procedure, to the extent not previously published by this Committee, are set out in Annex 1 to this Final Report. The criticisms are without merit.
4. All the evidence on which the Committee has relied, including that from Mr Johnson, has been given on oath, that is, with a signed statement of truth where the evidence is in writing. The Committee has disclosed to Mr Johnson all documents that have been submitted to the inquiry, without any redaction. Mr Johnson knows the identities of all witnesses. At his request and as part of a fair procedure, Mr Johnson was given notice of all the issues that arose from the evidence submitted to the Committee so that he might provide his own written evidence. Mr Johnson availed himself of the opportunity to give written evidence, and in addition gave oral evidence at a hearing on 22 March 2023. Mr Johnson was subsequently given the opportunity to provide further written evidence which he did on 22 May 2023. The provisional conclusions of the Committee were delivered to Mr Johnson on 8 June 2023 so that he could respond. There is no matter upon which the Committee has reported that Mr Johnson has not had the opportunity to answer or comment upon.
5. In our inquiry we examined what Mr Johnson said to the House about gatherings in No. 10, and whether what he said to the House was correct or not. If a statement was misleading, we considered whether it was a genuine error or was intentional or reckless, and whether the record was corrected comprehensively and in good time.
6. We established that Mr Johnson:
