Boris Johnson clashed in heated exchanges with senior MPs on the Privileges Committee on Wednesday over his reassurances to the Commons that Covid rules and guidance was followed in No10 during the partygate scandal.
The former prime minister said the boozy gatherings, which came to be known collectively as ‘Partygate’, were necessary as part of work morale in Number 10 during the pandemic.
Chairwoman Harriet Harman said MPs were justified in their “dismay” over “flimsy” assurances he gave them about following lockdown rules.
“Would you not expect us to be a bit dismayed to hear that [that assurance] was not from the senior civil servants, it was from political appointees, [and] that they themselves had doubts about it?”.
But Mr Johnson said that he thought, at the time, the gatherings were within the rules and therefore he did not willingly mislead Parliament.
During a three-hour grilling Mr Johnson also crossed swords with Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin over the Downing Street gatherings that led to more than 100 fixed penalty notices to be issued by the police.
