Britain: MPs to vote on Johnson and his lockdown breaches


by Kylie MacLellan and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) – British MPs will decide in a vote on Thursday whether to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is suspected of misleading parliament by repeatedly denying breaching health restrictions linked to the COVID-19.

The head of government was fined by London police last week for attending a birthday party in his honor in June 2020 when all Britons were under a strict ban on indoor gatherings .

The opposition have demanded his resignation accusing him of lying to Parliament when he claimed last year that Downing Street, which combines his official residence and workplace, had complied with all the rules in force during the pandemic.

Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, agreed on Tuesday to the Opposition’s request for a vote on whether to take the matter to the House Privileges Committee so that it opens an investigation.

According to the rules governing the functioning of British institutions, knowingly misleading Parliament is an offense which justifies the resignation of its author.

However, it is very unlikely that the opposition motion will pass as Boris Johnson retains the support of a large majority of Tory MPs.

If some elected “Tories” have gone in recent months to suggest his resignation, the outbreak of war in Ukraine has indeed tightened the ranks of the majority around the Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson, who has not spoken to MPs since the fine was announced, was due to address them at 3:30 p.m. GMT on Tuesday to apologize for the breach of health rules.

He has previously said he didn’t realize his behavior broke those rules and “humbly” admitted that it did.

According to an opinion poll carried out by JL Partners with around 2,000 people for the daily The Times, 72% of Britons have an unfavorable opinion of the Prime Minister’s behavior and only 16% a positive opinion. The word most often used to qualify him is “liar”, she specifies.

Labor leader Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of using the war in Ukraine as a shield, a tactic he said was “quite offensive”.

“He didn’t just break the rules, he lied to public opinion and he lied to Parliament about it,” he said.

(Report Kylie MacLellan, James Davey and Andrew MacAskill, French version Augustin Turpin and Marc Angrand)



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