To the question, “Did Boris Johnson lie to Parliament about the parties that took place in his Downing Street office during the confinement due to Covid? “, British lawmakers – whose response was eagerly awaited – decided: Boris Johnson has “deliberately deceived” the British Parliament, concluded Thursday, June 15 a parliamentary commission of inquiry. This report had already pushed the former British prime minister to resign with a bang on Friday from his mandate as a deputy.
Boris Johnson, for his part, denounced a desire to“political assassination” according to a press release. “The commission did not find any evidence” against us, said Boris Johnson in a long, extremely aggressive statement, reaffirming that he believed he had done nothing wrong and denouncing the ” lie “ and conclusions “sick” of the committee.
The ex-conservative leader, who is about to celebrate his 59th birthday, was warned last week of the damning conclusions of these fourteen months of investigation into the parties in Downing Street during the anti-Covid confinements. No longer sitting in the House of Commons, Boris Johnson no longer risks much. The report states that the commission would have recommended a 90-day suspension if Boris Johnson had not slammed the door. A very severe sanction that would probably have triggered a by-election.
The document, which must still be submitted to the vote of the deputies, nevertheless asks that it be deprived of access to the premises of the Parliament, generally granted to former prime ministers.
An uncertain capacity for harm
A year after his resignation from Downing Street, where he spent three years marred by scandals, his resounding departure prevents any return to power of the ex-journalist and mayor of London, pending a possible re-election in the legislative elections scheduled for next year. .
Above all, it has revived the internal wars within the Conservative Party, in power for thirteen years, where Boris Johnson has influential allies. He retains an important aura with the base for having won a historic victory in the 2019 legislative elections, then carried out Brexit, when the exit from the European Union seemed to be at an impasse.
If he remains at the center of political and media attention, his real capacity for nuisance remains uncertain: neither his attempts to return to power nor those to lead slings against the government on certain projects have succeeded for a year.
And only two deputies have imitated him and resigned from Parliament for a week, while some feared a wave of mass departures weakening the government of Rishi Sunak.
