Boris Johnson Tells MPs He Didn't Realise His Birthday Party Broke Covid Rules

Boris Johnson has insisted he did not knowingly mislead parliament when he said no Covid rules were broken in Downing Street.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, the prime minister said it “did not occur” to him that he had been guilty of breaking the law.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, accused Johnson of being “dishonest” with parliament and the public.

It was the first time Johnson faced MPs since police issued him with a fixed-penalty notice (FPN) for attending his own birthday party in the Cabinet Room of No.10 on June 2020.

MPs have been granted a vote on Thursday as to whether an investigation should be launched into whether the prime minister had misled the Commons with his previous statements.

On December 1, 2021, Johnson told the Commons: “All guidance was followed completely in No.10.”

Later that month he also told MPs he was “sure that whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”.

Ministers are supposed to resign if they knowingly mislead parliament. While any “inadvertent” error is expected to be corrected at the earliest opportunity.

Johnson told MPs today: “It did not occur to me or subsequently that a gathering in a the Cabinet Room before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules.

“That what was my mistake. And I apologise for it unreservedly.”

Starmer has said Johnson should resign, as has Lib Dem leader Ed Davey and Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon. 

When the partygate revelations were first reported last year, many Tory MPs went public with demands that Johnson quit.

But the ongoing war in Ukraine led some previous critics to question wether now was the right time to hold a Conservative Party leadership election.

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