Covid rule-breaking claims ‘a load of nonsense’, Johnson says
B
oris Johnson has branded ideas he might have taken half in additional rule-breaking through the pandemic “a load of absolute nonsense”.
The former prime minister wouldn’t say who he believes is attempting to “stitch him up”, having beforehand claimed he seems to be the sufferer of a politically motivated plot.
But he insisted that the Cabinet Office determination handy over entries from his official diary through the pandemic to police with out first querying them with him was “ridiculous”.
No 10 and the Cabinet Office are adamant that ministers weren’t concerned when Whitehall officers handed issues to the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police.
The entries revealed visits by Mr Johnson’s mates to Chequers – the prime minister’s nation property – and occasions in Downing Street through the pandemic, based on The Times, which broke the story.
The new data is claimed to have come to gentle throughout a evaluation by taxpayer-funded legal professionals forward of the Covid public inquiry.
Mr Johnson was catching a flight in Washington DC on Friday as a part of his journey to the US, the place he’s talking in regards to the warfare in Ukraine, when he was approached by a Sky News journalist asking in regards to the revelations.
“You want my honest view, I think this whole thing is completely nonsensical,” he mentioned.
Asked what the entries present, he replied: “They merely record events in my day.”
Mr Johnson was beforehand fined for attending a gathering in Downing Street to mark his birthday in June 2020 – one in all a collection of political crises that in the end led to the top of his premiership.
“This whole thing is a load of nonsense from beginning to end… I think it’s ridiculous that elements in my diary should be cherry-picked and handed over to the police, to the Privileges Committee without even anybody having the basic common sense to ask me what these entries referred to,” he mentioned.
Asked whether or not he believes Mr Sunak is attempting to sew him up, he mentioned: “I just think it’s totally nonsensical and bizarre. There are tens of thousands of entries in the prime ministerial diary… None of them constitute a breach of the rules during Covid.”
Mr Johnson urged not one of the entries in query relate to durations when the nation was in lockdown, however instances when different restrictions have been in place.
He added: “For reasons that – somebody, somewhere, thinks it’s sensible to do this – I don’t.”
The Privileges Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into whether or not Mr Johnson lied to Parliament in regards to the partygate scandal, has additionally been knowledgeable of the brand new data.
The fallout provides to the issues confronting Mr Sunak, who was handed a set penalty alongside Mr Johnson over the June 2020 occasion and now faces unrest from the previous prime minister’s allies.
Mr Sunak “definitely” didn’t go to the grace-and-favour retreat in contravention of coronavirus guidelines when he was chancellor through the pandemic, his press secretary mentioned.
The Prime Minister has not mentioned the controversy together with his predecessor, the spokeswoman mentioned.
Mr Johnson, in a letter to the chair of the Covid inquiry, indicated he was severing ties with taxpayer-funded legal professionals representing him.
It is known he misplaced confidence within the Cabinet Office.
Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer mentioned earlier on Friday the general public was “fed up to the back teeth” with tales in regards to the former prime minister.
“These are deeply personal things and increasing revelations about Boris Johnson, I think, just add to that sense of hurt and people are fed up with it,” he mentioned.
“I do assume there are questions now about why have these allegations not come out earlier than, all these allegations.