The so-called party gate talks about the drinks and parties Johnson attended as prime minister at the official residence during the lockdowns. “The central question is whether Johnson deliberately misled parliament when he claimed to have complied with the corona rules,” says Lia van Bekhoven from London. In his defense papers, which he has already released on Tuesday, the former prime minister claims he has never knowingly lied.
“Johnson says he doesn’t know exactly what the rules were,” says van Bekhoven, “that none of his advisers told him he would commit a violation if he were present at the parties. Even after those parties, no one would have told him that what he was doing there could be borderline ».
According to the British correspondent, what favors Johnson is that he had an official photographer with him on four of the five occasions. “It’s not someone you take with you when you shouldn’t be somewhere.”
Will Johnson get away with it again?
Whether Johnson will pull it off again remains to be seen. “He will have to firmly defend his political skin,” says van Bekhoven. ‘And this will certainly attract viewers, the session can be followed live. Johnson is, of course, one of Britain’s most colorful politicians.”
According to van Bekhoven, a lot will depend on how far the committee is willing to go. “They can, for example, deny Johnson access to parliament for a few days. If they do so for more than ten days, his constituency may decide to call new elections. Then Johnson could lose his seat in Parliament if he loses.’