Covid UK live: Dominic Raab says Cummings’ claim that Johnson lied to Parliament is ‘nonsense’ | Policy

[ad_1]

good morning. Boris Johnson’s critics believe that if they can prove that he lied to the House of Commons, they will finally have the evidence to force him out (because ministerial law states that “ministers who deliberately mislead Parliament are expected to submit their resignations to the House of Commons” Prime Minister”) and Dominic Cummings is once again trying to convince the prime minister on these grounds.

Cummings has tried before, and last year told MPs as evidence before a committee that he heard Johnson say he’d rather see a “high pile of bodies” than order a third shutdown – a claim Johnson flatly denied from the dispatch box. But in the past year, parliamentary authorities, and even the committee that took evidence from Cummings, showed no interest in pursuing Cummings’ evidence on this point, adjudicating who was telling the truth, leaving the prosecution hanging in the air.

Cummings returned yesterday with new evidence of Johnson’s lying, which has become hard to ignore, as the party door has become a toxic controversy.

In his statement to MPs last week, Johnson said that when he attended the ceremony in Lawn 10 on May 20, 2020, when lockdown restrictions were in place, he “implicitly believed this was a work event.” No. 10 also said Johnson had not been “warned” in advance that it would be wrong for the party to move forward.

There have also been allegations from the government that he did not know this was happening in advance. No 10 says he hasn’t seen the email from his chief private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting the staff to the party (although it wouldn’t be unusual for the PM not to read an email on the subject of the diary – his staff is there to read it to him). On this morning’s Today programme, Dominic Raab, the Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister, was asked to confirm that Johnson had denied ‘in advance’ knowledge of it. [the party]That’s true. Raab said.

Cummings’ evidence, if true, breaks Johnson’s narrative to shreds. In a new post on his Substack blog, he said he personally told Johnson on the day of the party that his contract was a mistake. Johnson waved [the concerns] Cummings says. He also says that he and another “very big” official told Reynolds that day that holding the party would be against the rules. Cummings says Reynolds did not agree, but said he would discuss the matter with the prime minister. Cummings says he is “sure” Reynolds has checked with the prime minister.

Rapp was giving interviews this morning. He told Radio Times that Cummings’ allegations were “nonsense”. He said:

suggest that [Johnson] A lie is nonsense. He made it clear to the House of Commons… that he thought it was a work event.

But Raab also declined to discuss the details of Cummings’ allegations, saying these were matters of the investigation by Sue Gray, the civil servant investigating all of the party’s allegations.

Raab also admitted that lying to Parliament under normal circumstances would be a matter of resignation. After emphasizing that he did not want to “get into hypotheses,” he told the Today show:

If it is false, deliberate in the manner you describe, and if it is not immediately corrected, it will usually be, by Ministerial Act and Governance over Parliament, a matter of resignation.

Here is today’s agenda.

Morning: Boris Johnson chairs the Cabinet.

10 am: Richard Meddings, the government’s proposed candidate to head NHS England, presents evidence before the House of Commons Health Committee.

11.15 am: Greg Hands, Minister of Energy, and Christopher Pincher, Minister of Housing, give evidence before the House of Commons Business Committee on energy policy.

11:30 a.m.: Downing Street holds a briefing in the lobby.

11:30 am: Sajid Javid, Minister of Health, takes questions in the House of Commons.

11:30 am: Kwasi Karting, Minister for Business, presents evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee in the House of Commons on Storm Irwin.

12 p.m.: Vaughan Gething, Minister for the Economy of Wales, holds a conference on Covid.

12.15 pm: Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, holds a press conference on Covid.

1.30 pm: Mark Drakeford, Welsh First Minister, takes questions at Sinead.

2 pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, makes a statement on Covid in the Scottish Parliament.

There will be some UK Covid coverage here, but for more coronavirus coverage, read our global live blog. he is here.

I’m trying to monitor the BTL comments but it’s impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, include “Andrew” somewhere and I’ll likely find it. I try to answer the questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and answer it above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise that for everyone.

If you want to get my attention quickly, it is better to use Twitter. I’m on AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected]

.

[ad_2]