More Partygate evidence published as Boris Johnson prepares to face inquiry – UK politics live | Politics

The bundle of evidence published by the privileges committee this morning is full of interesting material. Here is a passage showing an exchange between Jack Doyle, the director of communications at the time, and an official when they were discussing how to respond to the first media inquiry, from Pippa Crerar (then at the Mirror, now the Guardian’s political editor) about Partygate.

“I don’t know what we say about the flat,” Doyle said.

That is a reference to the so-called Abba party in the Downing Street flat, which involved Abba music being played so loud that it could be heard in the No 10 press office several floors below. Carrie Johnson, Boris’s wife, was reportedly celebrating the departure of Dominic Cummings with friends.

Sue Gray did not properly investigate this for her report, and Johnson himself only made one oblique reference to it in his evidence yesterday.

We knew that Boris Johnson would not be voting for Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal. He said so in a speech earlier this month. But to vote against, as he has said he will do today, makes his rebellion much more serious.

What is even more provocative is the reason he has given for voting against. In a statement given overnight to Daily Telegraph, he said:

The proposed arrangements would mean either that Northern Ireland remained captured by the EU legal order – and was increasingly divergent from the rest of the UK – or they would mean that the whole of the UK was unable properly to diverge and take advantage of Brexit.

That is not acceptable. I will be voting against the proposed arrangements today. Instead, the best course of action is to proceed with the Northern Ireland protocol bill, and make sure that we take back control.

The Northern Ireland protocol bill is the legislation that would allow the UK government to ignore parts of the protocol unilaterally. Many lawyers argued that it was illegal under international law, because it would involve the UK breaking a treaty it has signed.

Johnson introduced the bill when he was prime minister, and he has argued that the threat of British unilateral action made the EU more inclined to negotiate. Sunak has now abandoned the bill.

But proposing bringing it back, Johnson is not just arguing for tweaks to the deal that has been negotiated. He is in effect saying that it should be ripped up, and that Britain should revive the threat to just ignore the treaty with the EU that it agreed in 2019 (when he himself was PM).

This goes much further than what most other Tory or DUP critics of the deal have said, and, if it were ever implemented, would ignite diplomatic war with Brussels.

The Commons privileges committee has now published a bundle of evidence that Boris Johnson and the MPs questioning him may refer to during today’s session. It runs to 110 pages and it’s here.

In a statement the committee says:

The documents comprise the evidence and materials that will be referred to in the course of oral questioning by MPs. Much of the material has already been previously published, including in the committee’s fourth report.

All evidence has already been shared with the witness two weeks ago, in unredacted form. The documents published this morning are materials that the committee and Mr Johnson have selected, that will be referred to in the course of the oral evidence session later today. The committee is now publishing these materials for the benefit of those following the oral evidence session so that they’re able to follow proceedings accordingly.

Liz Truss will join Boris Johnson in voting against Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal today, PA Media is reporting, quoting a source close to Truss.

Truss is understood to believe the Windsor framework deal does not “satisfactorily resolve the issues thrown up by” the Northern Ireland protocol and “almost fatally impinges” on the UK’s ability to diverge from EU rules and regulations.

Good morning. Does it matter if ministers don’t tell the truth to parliament? In theory the answer is yes, and ever since John Profumo lied to MPs about his relationship with Christine Keeler, Erskine May, the parliamentary rulebook, has been explicit about misleading the Commons being a potential contempt of parliament. But has parliament got the will and the means to enforce this? That is what today’s privileges committee hearing with Boris Johnson is really all about.

For more background, you can read all our Partygate coverage here, and my colleague Archie Bland has a good one-stop summary of what to expect here.

Some reports say the Johnson hearing could last for up to five hours, and we’ve also got PMQs. But that’s not all. The God of News is particularly bountiful today, and we have also got a vote on Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal, with confirmation overnight that Johnson (him again) will be voting against. My colleague Aletha Adu has the details.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: The Commons privileges committee publishes a bundle of evidence relevant to its inquiry into Johnson.

12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

After 12.45pm: MP begin the debate on regulations implementing the Stormont lock part of the Windsor framework, the revised version of the Northern Ireland protocol. The vote will come 90 minutes after the debate starts.

2pm: Johnson starts giving evidence to the privileges committee

I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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