The cross-party Privileges Committee said the Commons may have been misled multiple times as they set up a live showdown with the former prime minister for later this month.
Mr Johnson remarked a mid-pandemic leaving party in No 10 was “probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”, according to written evidence.
Mr Johnson released a statement claiming the inquiry’s interim report showed he was being “vindicated” as he raised concern about civil service investigator Sue Gray’s move to Sir Keir Starmer’s office.
But the committee said: “The evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings.
“There is evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules.”
The committee defended its inquiry as being “not based on the Sue Gray report” but on evidence including witnesses, WhatsApps, emails and photographs from a Downing Street photographer.
www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk/news/national/23360920.evidence-rule-breaches-obvious-johnson-partygate-lies-inquiry-says/
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