Boris Johnson will face Commons inquiry over whether he lied to parliament
Source: The Guardian
Boris Johnson will face a Commons inquiry over whether he lied to parliament after Downing Street dramatically withdrew an attempt to force Conservative MPs to delay the new Partygate investigation.
In dramatic scenes on the floor of the Commons, two more Tory MPs called for Johnson to quit on Thursday, including the influential Brexiter Steve Baker. “The prime minister now should be long gone,” the former minister said. “Really, the prime minister should just know the gig’s up.”
A Labour motion to launch a parliamentary investigation into whether Johnson lied to MPs about Downing Street parties passed without a vote on Thursday afternoon.
Hours earlier, government whips had pulled an amendment that would have delayed any vote to start the inquiry until after the Sue Gray report was published.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/21/no-10-drops-attempt-to-delay-inquiry-into-whether-boris-johnson-misled-parliament
The annoying thing is that the police have said they are now going to stop saying anything more about their investigation until after the local elections on 5 May:
Police investigating breaches of lockdown restrictions at Downing Street have said they will not be providing any more updates on new fixed-penalty notices until after next month’s local elections.
The investigation is continuing after Boris Johnson this month became the first serving prime minister to be found to have committed a criminal act while in office when he was fined over breaching his own Covid rules.
However, Scotland Yard’s announcement that it would not be releasing any more updates until after the 5 May elections potentially spares Johnson further ignominy, were it to be made known that he had received further fines.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “Whilst the investigation will continue during the pre-election period, due to the restrictions around communicating before the May local elections, we will not provide further updates until after 5 May.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/21/met-police-delay-updates-on-partygate-fines-until-after-may-local-elections
This of course helps cover up the law-breaking, at the one time voters might do something about it. Wait until the next general election in 2024, and it will have been swamped by other events.
