A minister has claimed the prime minister is “confident” the public will see he has been “straightforward” on the “partygate” affair.
Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns, said Sky News: “The prime minister has been very clear that the House can look at this, the House will look at this and he is confident that when the full context, one of the other things he said in the House on Tuesday is that he was frustrated that he couldn’t speak about the context of all of this, put the full facts into the public domain while these various processes are ongoing, particularly the Met.
“He remains confident that when people can see the full context of what happened it will be clear that he was straight forward, he said to the House in good faith that he believed the rules were followed.” Burns suggested that the “partygate” issue could be the “most looked at event” since the Second World War. Last night MPs launched a third investigation relating to claims a number of lockdown-defying gatherings occurred in Downing Street and Whitehall.
Burns explained: “We are going to have multiple opportunities for the prime minister’s word to be tested.
“We have got the Met investigation ongoing, we have committed that when that is finished Sue Gray will complete her report, update her report, the prime minister will come back to Parliament.
“And we have now got the Privileges investigation. This is going to be the most looked at event possibly since the Second World War.”
Burns said he believed Johnson has been “faithful and genuine and true” in his remarks to the House of Commons regarding the ongoing “Partygate” claims.
He argued: “that when the full facts are seen, when the context comes out, that it will be clear that the prime minister at every time that he came to Parliament was faithful and genuine and true in what he believed.
“What I believe is that the prime minister told the House what he believed to be the truth in good faith at each stage and when there has been a development subsequent to that, new information, he has corrected the record.”
He went on to say that the prime minister is “looking forward to this [the investigations] ending”.
