found is that the prime minister, former prime minister deliberately misled them, that he lied to them. that is the highest form of contempt. if you want to put this in some sort of historical context, the depth of borisjohnson s disgrace is about as deep and as bad as it gets. just in terms of the punishment that has been given, this still has to be voted on in parliament, so it may end up differently, but of course these sanctions are very heavy. thea;r these sanctions are very heavy. they are very heavy- these sanctions are very heavy. they are very heavy. this these sanctions are very heavy. they are very heavy. this idea these sanctions are very heavy. t ie: are very heavy. this idea that had he not decided to jump are very heavy. this idea that had he not decided tojump before he was pushed that there would be a 90 day suspension, that is pretty extraordinary. now this sort of post mp punishment that has been imposed that you re hearing a bit of from katy, that he is not go
parliament, the work of this committee to carry out a further contempt is just the sort of final straw, the cherry on top. although the committee do not use those sort of words, essentially what they are doing is accusing borisjohnson of donald trump like tactics, that idea that you never admit making a mistake, it is all somebody else s vault, and you do not mind if institutions are damaged in the process. that is incredibly serious allegations that these mps are making, essentially accusing the prime minister beyond the misleading, undermining parliament and basically putting britain s institutions or the institution of parliament in peril. the wider context, very, very big statement, as you say. thank you, rob watson, political correspondent. i m joined now by dr sam power, senior lecturer in politics at the university of sussex. and william atkinson.
parliament, the proper democratic process. it is a very severe offence, about as severe as it can get in parliamentary terms. the contempt was all the more serious, the committee says, because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government. there is no precedent for a prime minister, they say, having been found to have deliberately misled the house. you misled the house on an issue of the greatest importance, the committee says, to the house and to the public, and did so repeatedly. he declined our invitation to reconsider his assertion that what we had said to the house was truthful. his defence to the allegation that he misled was an ex post facto justification and no more than an artifice. he misled the committee in the presentation of his evidence. some very strong, very critical, very damning language at the crucial part of this report where they explain their
a lengthy report and it will be a lot of detail in there. this is the first any of us have seen of it, so we will take you through what we hope to see as the main findings. you can see the title page. it was referred to the committee in april 2022 into the conduct of the right honourable borisjohnson. this is theirfinal report. it honourable borisjohnson. this is their final report. it has been a yearin their final report. it has been a year in the making. we can take you through the contents. what we are looking for at this stage is the executive summary which will pull together and summarise the report s main findings, their criticisms of borisjohnson, and crucially any punishment or sanction that the committee recommends. it was mp for parliament to debate and vote on that. crucially, it is important to remember that borisjohnson has remember that boris johnson has resigned remember that borisjohnson has resigned an mp. just taking you through the contents. there are summaries of th