Boris Johnson vows ‘hand on heart’ he did not mislead Commons over partygate

BORIS Johnson today pleaded “hand on heart” that he didn’t lie to MPs about illegal lockdown parties in No10.

The ex-PM is giving evidence to the Privileges Committee in a marathon four hour grilling, where he’ll try and prove he didn’t deliberately lie to MPs about illegal lockdown parties.

The session opened with BoJo swearing on King James’ bible that he’ll only tell the truth.

In his opening statement Boris said: “I understand public anger and I continue to apologise for what happened on my watch and I take full responsibility.

“Hand on heart I did not lie to the house when those statements were made.

“They were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time. When this inquiry was set up.”

In a 52-page defence dossier submitted to the Privileges Committee yesterday, the ex-PM argued the only person calling him a deliberate liar is his old right-hand-man turned nemesis, Dominic Cummings.

And he branded accusations from MPs that he must have known he was breaking lockdown rules as “absurd”.

But in evidence released this morning, Boris’ former communications chief Lee Cain said it would’ve been “highly unusual” of him not to raise alarms about the gatherings.

Mr Cain admitted he spoke to Mr Cummings about concerns over a proposed “bring your own booze” garden party.

If the seven member committee find him guilty, BoJo faces being suspended from the House and even facing a by-election in his Uxbridge seat.

Mr Johnson insists he never realised a multitude of boozy gatherings in No 10 breached lockdown rules — and says he would never have invited a photographer to snap them if he thought they were against the law.

In his legal defence he argued there is a complete lack of written and oral evidence from those who attended the parties that they understood rules were being broken.

And the ex-PM said no aides or staff warned him of breaches either.