Boris Johnson has been told to hand over a huge number of documents including his diaries to MPs investigating whether he lied to parliament over partygate.
The Commons privileges committee is investigating whether the prime minister misled parliament when he said no lockdown breaking parties took place in No.10.
If the MPs decide the outgoing PM knew he was not telling the truth, they can recommend he be suspended or expelled from the Commons.
The committee, led by veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman, has demanded the following documents by August 15.
PM diaries for the following days:
15 May 2020
20 May 2020
19 June 2020
13 November 2020
27 November 2020
15 December 2020
17 December 2020
14 January 2021
Event email invites
All email/electronic (including WhatsApp) invites for all events included in the attached timeline.
No.10 entry Logs for the following days:
19 June 2020
13 November 2020
Briefings
All prime minister briefing packs for all HoC appearances between 1 December 2021 and 25 May 2022, including Urgent Questions, Statements, and Prime Minister’s Questions, where briefing related to the matter referred to the Privileges Committee; including details of the clearance process and who cleared the briefing packs in each instance.
Electronic diary schedulers for PMQs briefing sessions
Evidence of who attended the briefing sessions ahead of PMQs appearances.
Internal No.10
Any notes or evidence of any inquiries that were made by the Prime Minister’s office/Mr Johnson, particularly on 30 November 2021, following the publication of articles by the Daily Mirror on 30 November and 1 December 2020, (online and print), entitled “Boris Johnson ‘broke Covid lockdown rules’ with Downing Street parties at Xmas” and “Boris party broke covid rules”.
Resignation emails
Any resignation emails, or correspondence relating to the resignation (including WhatsApp messages), of No.10 staff.
Advice and assurances
All advice (including legal advice) and assurances received by Mr Johnson, or commissioned by the Prime Minister’s office, relating to the events included in the attached timeline.
No.10 photographer
All photos for days where Mr Johnson attended any event included in the timeline, including those by the PM’s official photographer Andrew Parsons.
Covid status of No. 10 staff
Information on the number of No.10 staff off work with Covid on the dates of each of the events on the timeline.
Civil servants disciplined
Number of civil servants disciplined in relation to any event included in the timeline, broken down by grade.
Documents deleted
Any documents in any of the above categories known to have existed which was subsequently deleted.
The committee is expected to begin holding oral evidence sessions in the autumn.
It has decided that Downing Street staff will be able to give evidence anonymously if necessary, meaning whistleblowers may be more likely to come forward.
