When rules don’t apply — to some

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This article was published 24/06/2023 (1014 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Deliberately disingenuous” is one of the more charitably eloquent descriptions a parliamentary committee report applies to the rules-flouting of former British prime minister Boris Johnson during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The damning report, released last week by the Privileges Committee after a 14-month investigation, was overwhelmingly endorsed by Britain’s House of Commons on June 19. The sanctions imposed on Mr. Johnson — who, having examined draft excerpts of the report, last week resigned his seat — include a revocation of the pass that affords him access to London’s parliamentary grounds.

While many fellow Conservatives in the 650-seat House — including current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — chose not to turn up for Monday’s session, those who took part in the five-hour debate voted 354-7 to support all the committee’s recommendations.

The adoption of the report brings to a close one of the more tawdry chapters in recent British history. During 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Mr. Johnson urged the British population to adhere closely to strict lockdown restrictions. As it turned out, Conservative politicians and officials were not practising what they preached.

It was later revealed that a series of large, boozy parties took place at the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street, in blatant defiance of those restrictions. Despite the release of photo and video evidence that the unlawful gatherings occurred, Mr. Johnson continued to insist no rules were broken.

Police laid charges and issued fines against more than 80 individuals, including Mr. Johnson, in connection to one of the gatherings, but declined to fine him for attending any of five other parties to which he was linked. A broader investigation by a senior civil servant later concluded at least 16 such gatherings took place in or near 10 Downing Street while the lockdown was in force.

Still, the denials persisted. The privileges committee’s report concludes the former PM misled Parliament at least five times by stating in the House that gatherings followed the government-imposed rules. The report also asserts the former leader misled the committee itself during its investigation.

“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly,” the report states.

Mr. Johnson becomes the first prime minister in British history to be found in contempt of Parliament — and the committee took pains to emphasize the contempt was “serious,” and without precedent in British parliamentary history.

With the target of the report having resigned his seat, no further sanctions — such as suspension — are available beyond the aforementioned pass revocation. But Monday’s session almost surely ends the political career of one of the U.K.’s most controversial figures, as it’s unlikely the Conservatives would support his candidacy in a run for re-election, and there’s little likelihood he could successfully re-emerge as an independent.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Johnson responded by borrowing from the Trumpian playbook, calling the report “a witch hunt,” “deranged” and “rubbish.” And while he is gone from the political arena, he has already taken steps to make sure he will not be forgotten. Before his vacated seat in Parliament could fully cool, the former PM had returned to his ink-stained roots and taken up residence as a columnist for the Daily Mail.

“I imagine we will see no shortage of volcanic eruptions of rhetoric on the pages of our right-wing newspapers emanating from Johnson,” said University of Manchester political-science professor Robert Ford.

It would be unlike Mr. Johnson to go quietly. One can only hope most Britons will share the view of Conservative MP Robert Seely, who declared Monday he is “so over Boris.”

» Winnipeg Free Press