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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Business
Jonathan Yerushalmy

‘End of the road for Johnson’: what the papers say as the privileges committee delivers its verdict

Boris Johnson Metro Douglas Ross George Mann National United Kingdom Daily Mail Express
Newspaper composite featuring headlines The Times, Mirror, The Guardian, i, The National, Metro, Daily Mail and The Yorkshire Post
Newspaper composite featuring headlines The Times, Mirror, The Guardian, i, The National, Metro, Daily Mail and The Yorkshire Post Composite: The Times / Mirror / The Guardian / i / The National / Metro / Daily Mail / The Yorkshire Post

A day after the House of Commons privileges committee found that Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate, the UK newspaper front pages offer a mostly damning verdict of the former prime minister’s behaviour – with some notable exceptions.

The Guardian sums up “The verdict on Johnson”, saying he “Misled parliament”, “Undermined Democracy” and was “Complicit in abuse of MPs”.

The paper notes that the former PM would have been faced with a “90-day suspension had he not quit”.

The Financial Times reports “Johnson’s repeated lies to MPs condemned in searing report”.

On its front page, the paper quotes directly from the report saying “He [deliberately] misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance … and did so repeatedly”.

The Times describes it as the “End of the road for Johnson”. After holding parliament in contempt “five times”, the paper quotes allies of prime minister Rishi Sunak as saying that Boris Johnson’s “political career is over”.

The Metro isn’t as definitive, asking “Is proper whopper a career stopper?”

The paper notes that Johnson has described the findings as “deranged”, “tripe” and “a lie”.

The Telegraph – Johnson’s former employer – notes that that he could become “the first former prime minister to be held in contempt of the Commons for misleading MPs”.

For that to happen though, MPs first have to vote on whether to accept the findings of the report. The paper says that even Johnson’s allies expect the vote to pass on Monday: “Just seven of the 352 Tory MPs yesterday publicly indicated they would vote against”.

But, as the paper’s headline notes, “Johnson allies vow to oust MPs who vote for his censure”.

The Mail also leads on the so-called “Tory revolt over ‘vindictive’ bid to banish Boris”.

The paper says MPs and grassroots activists were “left furious” after the committee called for Johnson to be “permanently denied the Commons pass offered to all former MPs, effectively barring him from the parliamentary estate.”

Under the headline “The most spiteful stitch-up in history of politics”, the Express offers up an editorial on its front page.

“Boris Johnson has been hounded from Parliament by a spiteful Westminster machine that loathes him”, it reads.

The Mirror appears to have pre-empted some of these attack lines: its front page reads “He’ll tell you it’s a witch-hunt… He’ll tell you it’s democracy betrayed… He’ll tell you he did nothing wrong… But just one word tells his story… Liar”.

The Yorkshire Post goes for a simpler “Liar, Liar” on its front page, calling the report a “Historic triumph for Parliamentary democracy”.

Scottish paper, The National, repeats the quotes the Scottish Tory leader on its front page as saying, “‘Boris is a truthful man’”.

The paper says Douglas Ross’s words have “come back to haunt him as damning committee findings are published”.

Finally, splashing with a particularly forlorn-looking picture of the former prime minister, the i says “He lied and lied and lied”.

The paper quotes from the report, saying some of Johnson’s evidence was “so disingenuous” it showed “deliberate attempts to mislead”.

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