London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Partygate: Boris Johnson will hide behind ‘unknowingly’ defence

Partygate: Boris Johnson will hide behind ‘unknowingly’ defence

PM may get away with his rule-breaking but Labour and Lib Dems are still keen to force a confidence vote
When Boris Johnson takes to the dispatch box on Tuesday, for the first time in weeks, his allies will roar their support – an attempt to immediately dispel any questions about confidence in his leadership.

While the prime minister might appear at times contrite for breaking Covid laws during England’s first Covid lockdown, he is expected to maintain that at the time he did not believe he was doing anything wrong.

This defence is key to ensuring he cannot be found to have knowingly misled parliament when he proclaimed that no rules were broken in No 10, when stories of sloshed staff holding parties with suitcases full of wine and a DJ first emerged.

It is the “knowingly” that is most important.

Johnson will seek to brush the issue under the carpet, bat off calls to resign and urge MPs to focus on issues such as the war in Ukraine. He will inevitably be thrown lifelines by some supportive backbenchers. The matter will, inevitably, drag on.

On top of the ongoing Met police investigation and Sue Gray’s as-yet-unpublished report, opposition parties are also mounting an attempt to keep the spotlight on Johnson’s rule-breaking.

They are pushing for the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to allow a vote on a debate about whether the prime minister should be held in contempt of parliament, potentially launching an investigation by the privileges committee into whether the Commons was misled.

This is a dangerous area for Johnson because the ministerial code that bears his signature is crystal clear that the price for misleading parliament is resignation.

While the text of any final motion has yet to materialise – and Hoyle will not deliver his ruling on whether to accept it or not until Tuesday at the earliest – Tory insiders admit the issue would be treated like a confidence vote.

But any vote will almost certainly be whipped, meaning the plan is doomed to fail even if it goes to a vote thanks to Johnson’s huge majority – barring a mammoth backbench rebellion.

One MP said they were considering voting against the government but knew that if they did so, they would be stripped of the whip and that would be the end of their political career.

“We have a reputation for being ruthless and brutal, which isn’t being lived up to at the moment,” they said.

There are those on the government’s side who also believe the move is premature, and that maximum damage would in fact be inflicted if the issue was left hanging unresolved in the run-up to next month’s local elections to inflict maximum damage.

Opposition parties are also sceptical about the chances of any investigation being able to use any evidence to prove Johnson misled parliament. “It’s not clear how we’d show that intent was incontrovertible,” a source said.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are still keen to force the vote given the awkward timing for the Conservatives, with midterm local elections less than a month away.

Online adverts are being worked up to target voters in key areas where Tory MPs who may not want to offer Johnson their public support will be forced to back him.

While the government will certainly still win, it is another uneasy echo for some Tories of the downfall of Theresa May, whose administration was found in contempt of parliament less than four years ago.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×