MPs have demanded a probe into whether Boris Johnson broke the ministerial code in comments he made over Covid-19 contracts.
Labour's Debbie Abrahams, Green MP Caroline Lucas and Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran have written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, asking him to investigate the Prime Minister's remarks.
It comes after the Prime Minister was asked about unpublished Covid-19 contracts in the House of Commons, to which he replied: "All the details are on the record”.
Asked a second time during the same debate, Mr Johnson repeated the claim, saying: "The contracts are there on the record for everybody to see.”
This was untrue. The PM has yet to correct the record.
A letter sent to the Good Law project by Government lawyers on February 25 - after the PM claimed the contracts had been published - confirmed around 100 contracts had not been published at the time.
In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary, the MPs said it was clear "that the Prime Minister had falsely reassured MPs about the number of contracts that had been published."
They also noted a comment by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, which "makes it clear that Ministers must take responsibility for correcting the record if a mistake has been made."
The Ministerial code notes that "it is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent errors.”
The MPs wrote: "We would therefore be grateful if you would investigate this as a breach of the Ministerial Code."
The Department of Health has claimed Mr Johnson was referring not to contracts, but to "Contract award notices (CANs)" - which they say had all been published at the time.
The Prime Minister was not asked about CANs, nor did he refer to CANs in his answer.
