Boris Johnson Referred to Police Over New Lockdown Breach Claims

Boris Johnson giving evidence to the Privileges Committee at the House of Commons, London, on March 22, 2023. House of Commons/UK Parliament via PA Media

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been referred to police by the Cabinet Office after his ministerial diary reportedly revealed visits by friends to Chequers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cabinet Office has passed its concerns to the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police, according to The Times of London.

The trips by friends to the Chequers country residence and new allegations about Johnson’s behaviour in Downing Street were highlighted during the preparation for a public inquiry into the pandemic.

The inquiry is being led by the Privileges Committee that is examining whether Johnson may have misled Parliament in statements that he made in the Commons about alleged breaches of lockdown rules in Downing Street.

A Cabinet Office spokesman told The Times of London that “information came to light during the process of preparing evidence for submission to the COVID inquiry” and was passed to the relevant authorities.

On Tuesday, Thames Valley Police confirmed that on May 18 they had received a report of potential breaches of the Health Protection Regulations between June 2020 and May 2021 at Chequers, Buckinghamshire.

“We are currently assessing this information,” police said.

The Cabinet Office is using taxpayers’ money to foot the bill for Johnson’s legal advice in relation to the inquiry.

Labour Party Chair Annelise Dodds told Sky News that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “should not be enabling British taxpayers to fund the legal bill of a disgraced former prime minister.”

She suggested that given that Britons are faced with a cost-of-living crisis, the “moral argument is very clear” and Sunak “seems to be too weak to stand up.”

Johnson is entitled to the government funded legal representation for the inquiry, as it relates to his time and conduct as a prime minister.

A spokesman for Johnson told The Times of London that “some abbreviated entries in Mr. Johnson’s official diary were queried by the Cabinet Office during preparation for the COVID inquiry.”

“Following an examination of the entries, Mr. Johnson’s lawyers wrote to the Cabinet Office and Privileges Committee explaining that the events were lawful and were not breaches of any COVID regulations,” the spokesman added.

Partygate

Johnson was fined in March 2022 for attending his birthday party on June 19, 2020 at Downing Street, in breach of lockdown rules.

In November 2020, the second national lockdown came into force in England, followed by a third lockdown in January 2021.

A number of gatherings took place at Downing Street during the pandemic, breaking the rules in place at the time.

Giving evidence to the Privileges Committee in March 2022, Johnson denied he lied to Parliament over the “partygate” scandal.

In a dossier he presented to the committee, Johnson accepted that he misled MPs when he said there had been no parties at 10 Downing Street in breach of lockdown rules.

But he insisted that he “did not intentionally or recklessly mislead the House” and that he made the denials “in good faith” based on the information he had at the time.

“You have found nothing to show that I was warned in advance that events in Number 10 were illegal, in fact nothing to show that anyone raised anxieties with me about any event, whether before or after it had taken place,” he told MPs.

Following the scandals that engulfed his office, Johnson resigned as prime minister in July 2022.

If the Privileges Committee concludes that Johnson misled Parliament and it constituted contempt, he could face a number of possible sanctions, including suspension from the House of Commons.