Tag Archives: knowingly

Evidence indicates Boris Johnson DID mislead Parliament over Downing Street parties

Boris Johnson (right): apparently he wasn’t at a Christmas Party in this image – notwithstanding the bottle of bubbly and the tinsel.

MPs investigating whether Boris Johnson knowingly misled Parliament over the so-called ‘Partygate’ scandal have said he may have done so on four occasions, and breaches of Covid-19 rules should have been “obvious” to him.

An initial report by the Commons’ Privileges Committee stated that Johnson “did not correct” misleading statements he made in the Commons at the “earliest opportunity”, as would have been expected from an MP.

He had “personal knowledge” about lockdown gatherings in No 10 which he could have disclosed to MPs, the committee said.

“Evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings,” the report stated.

And there was “evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the House were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules”.

Furthermore, the inquiry had been held up by a “reluctance” from Mr Johnson’s government “to provide unredacted evidence”. Some material “had been redacted even though it was already in the public domain”.

The unredacted disclosure of all relevant material was finally made by Rishi Sunak’s government on November 18 last year.

Johnson himself is still saying there is no evidence that he knowingly misled Parliament or failed to update Parliament in a timely manner. He’s sticking to his story that when he said the rules and guidance had been followed, that was his honest belief.

But he is also saying that the findings of an investigation by former Cabinet Office civil servant Sue Gray should not be trusted because she has now joined the Labour Party as its chief of staff. There is no evidence to support his claim that she was politically biased.

Johnson is due to give evidence to MPs later this month – and the session is likely to be televised.


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Jeremy Hunt is playing with words when he could be having an adult discussion about healthcare, says Ralf Little

Ralf Little was talking about his dialogue with Jeremy Hunt in an interview conducated by James O’Brien on LBC.

Actor – and former medical student – Ralf Little appeared on radio to repeat his appeal for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to take part in a live-broadcast debate with him about the state of the NHS.

Mr Hunt had previously challenged Mr Little, on Twitter, to prove his claim that the Health Secretary had “knowingly” lied to the public using inaccurate statistics, in an interview on The Andrew Marr Show.

Talking with James O’Brien on LBC, Mr Little said: “In hindsight that was probably a regrettable choice of words.”

But he said he still wanted to debate the facts – in the name of transparency.

Mr Hunt, on the other hand, has become reticent. His claim is that he only challenged Mr Little to a debate because the other man had said he “knowingly” lied, and would not take part in such an event on any other terms.

“It’s getting extremely semantic and… extremely technical, and it may even be legally sound,” said Mr Little. “But what it feels like is, this man who’s a clever politician… is obfuscating and avoiding a serious discussion about the NHS, and mental health, and the future of the NHS, off the basis of a semantic argument and a technical argument, and I don’t think that’s reasonable.”

Mr Little said he had debunked two of Hunt’s claims and actually bolstered one, the health secretary having undersold his achievement.

Little told James O’Brien he couldn’t believe the Tory had tried to dispute Hawking’s cherrypicking claim: “Literally, his job is to analyse evidence and use that to theorise the most extraordinary things that most of us can’t comprehend.

“If anyone knows what cherrypicking statistics is, and how evidence works, it’s Stephen Hawking. If he’s telling you you’re getting it wrong, you listen. Surely?”

He said: “Where the problem comes is going, ‘Everything’s going really well,’ and it’s simply not true or it’s certainly not the full story… It’s the NHS. We need to know what’s going on with it… We need to know it’s not being privatised on the quiet.

“Again, something I’d like to ask the man.”

Here’s the full interview:

It seems to This Writer that Mr Little has a very strong point.

It doesn’t matter whether Mr Hunt “knowingly” lied or inadvertently quoted false figures – the end result is the same.

We can’t allow ourselves to believe a word he says.

Maybe he doesn’t want to clear that up.

If so, that might be a worse stain on his character.

Source: Ralf Little Explains The Twitter Row Between Him, Jeremy Hunt And Stephen Hawking – LBC


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