Boris Johnson faces high-stakes grilling over ‘partygate’ at committee meeting

Johnson said that he was assured by “trusted advisers” that neither the legally binding rules nor the government's coronavirus guidance had been broken.

Boris Johnson is back where he likes to be: at the centre of attention. But he’s not so happy about the reason.

Britain’s former prime minister faces a grilling Wednesday by a committee of lawmakers over whether he misled Parliament about rule-breaking parties in government buildings during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, a bullish Johnson said “the evidence conclusively shows that I did not knowingly or recklessly mislead Parliament.”

“The committee has produced not a shred of evidence to show that I have,” he said.

Expected to last several hours, the hearing is a moment of peril for a politician whose career has been a roller coaster of scandals and comebacks. If the House of Commons Committee of Privileges concludes Johnson lied deliberately, he could be suspended or even lose his seat in Parliament.

That would likely end hopes of one more comeback for the 58-year-old politician, who led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in 2019 but was forced out by his own party in July 2022 after getting mired in scandals over money, ethics and judgment.

In an interim report this month, the committee – made up of Conservative and opposition lawmakers – said evidence strongly suggested that it would have been “obvious” to Johnson that gatherings in his Downing Street offices in 2020 and 2021 broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.

Johnson acknowledged on Tuesday that his repeated reassurances to Parliament that the rules were followed at all times “did not turn out to be correct.” But he said he “did not intentionally or recklessly mislead” lawmakers.