A parliamentary inquiry will investigate whether British Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled the House of Commons about parties held at his official residence during the corona pandemic. A motion to such an inquiry was passed in the British Parliament without opposition, despite an earlier attempt by the government to postpone the vote.
According to the opposition, Johnson lied about parties at the official residence in Downing Street while the United Kingdom was in a strict lockdown. The fine that Johnson received last week from the London police for his presence at a meeting to celebrate his birthday in June 2020 confirms that image. In parliament, Johnson initially said that “all rules have always been complied with.” Last Tuesday he acknowledged in the House of Commons that he had broken the rules and apologized for that.
The British Prime Minister is currently visiting India for trade and security talks. On the outward journey, he told reporters that he had more important things on his mind than investigating his behavior. “Parliament should do better for itself the things it was elected for,” he said. Until this afternoon, the British government tried to postpone the vote on the parliamentary inquiry until the police investigation into the lockdown parties is fully concluded.
Fines
The end of that investigation is yet to come. According to the newspaper The Telegraph the police will not hand out new fines for the local elections on May 5. After that, Johnson could face even more fines.
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During the debate before the vote, influential Conservative MP Steve Baker, among others, strongly criticized the prime minister. “He needs to know when it’s time to go,” he said. Many Tories, however, still support Johnson, in the hope that his actions around the war in Ukraine will win back the hearts of disappointed British voters.
But a parliamentary inquiry is likely to uncover more painful details and possibly hundreds of precarious photos of the parties. And misleading parliament is considered a political mortal sin. If 54 Conservative parliamentarians send a letter to revoke confidence in the prime minister, a vote of confidence will follow. If he loses it, Prime Minister Johnson is done.