Boris Johnson made a mockery of lockdown – now he’s doing it again with the Partygate investigation
‘The thing about the greased piglet is that he manages to slip through other people’s hands where mere mortals fail.’
David Cameron’s famous remark about Boris Johnson’s survival skills is being put to the test this week, as the former Prime Minister seeks to wriggle free from a crisis entirely of his own making.
Some may question why an Inquiry held by the relatively obscure Privileges Committee, in a backroom of Parliament, in relation to some pixelated photographs taken a couple of years ago, matters so much.
But be in no doubt, it does matter.
Because our entire economy, society and environment hinges on functioning democratic systems.
Boris Johnson’s actions in relation to Partygate put these at grave risk – and we the public shouldn’t be forced to accept that risk. There should be consequences for his dishonesty – to ensure accountability to Parliament is restored.
Parliament needs statements from Ministers to be accurate and honest, in order to do its job.
As Dr Hannah White at the Institute for Government states so clearly in her response to the Partygate inquiry: ‘Parliament’s role scrutinising government is central to our democratic system… (that) role is worthless if the information it extracts from government cannot be relied upon.’
Yet Johnson was not accurate and not honest when informing Parliament about parties in Downing Street.
After reports of these gatherings first emerged in November 2021, Johnson told MPs they were within the guidance – even as the evidence piled higher proving they were not. Shamefully, he didn’t correct the Parliamentary record for another six months, when Sue Gray’s report was finally published in May 2022.
Johnson blatantly, recklessly, and many would argue knowingly, misled Parliament, and has gone on to try and paint the investigation as somehow biased. MPs simply cannot do our job if senior politicians undermine the legitimacy of independent Committees.
The deliberations of such bodies may appear dry, but they are a vital part of our Parliamentary democracy – tackling big issues of public interest, scrutinising ministers, and holding our government to account.
Yet in front of the Privileges Committee investigating Johnson, he patronisingly argued that its Chair, Harriet Harman, ‘had said some things about this matter before reading the evidence, which plainly and wrongly prejudge the very issue on which you are adjudicating.’
And he mustered together his old allies to back him up – from Andrea Jenkyns labelling the Committee a kangaroo court, to Jacob Rees-Mogg arguing it’s a ‘political committee against Boris Johnson.’
Let’s just remind ourselves – this is a Committee comprising four Conservative MPs, and three opposition MPs – it doesn’t exactly scream ‘anti-Boris alliance.’ Harriet Harman was elected as Chair of the Committee by her fellow Committee members – it’s quite simply dishonest of Johnson and his allies to suggest she is biased.
Parliament also cannot do its job if crucial constitutional conventions are treated with disdain and disregard.
We’ve seen it before from Johnson – whether it’s unlawfully proroguing Parliament, or ignoring the findings of his own ethics advisor.
But these conventions matter because the person who is Prime Minister, as Boris Johnson was when he misled Parliament, has to be seen as the ultimate guarantor of decency in public life.
Whoever leads our country must be a decent, honest, law-abiding person. That doesn’t mean our conventions are perfect – for example it’s still ludicrous that the Prime Minister is the final judge and jury over the Ministerial Code – but they’re what we have, and our system relies on them being honoured.
Instead, in one of Johnson’s final claims to the Committee this week, he even refused to say whether he would accept its findings.
‘I wait to see how you proceed with the evidence’, he stated. Here we have the outcome of an independent Committee sabotaged and subverted before it has even been decided.
And so Johnson continues to fundamentally undermine the conventions on which our democracy is built. And while he does this, the world burns.
This week, a major new climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed global temperatures intensifying, and sea levels rising.
On the same day, the Metropolitan Police was found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
And new research from Friends of the Earth suggests that over a million households are facing extreme fuel poverty – spending an extortionate 20% of their disposable income on energy bills. Over 100,000 households are even paying double that.
There are so many crises that our government – and our country – faces. But tackling them requires a functioning, healthy democracy.
That means we cannot set a precedent whereby a Prime Minister, even one that has left office, can show complete disdain for our constitutional conventions, total disrespect of our Parliamentary procedures, and an utter disregard for any sense of decency in public life – and not face the consequences.
All our futures depend on good governance – and it couldn’t be clearer that Boris Johnson failed to provide it.
This greased piglet must not be allowed to wriggle free.
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