to the house. for around three hours, mps on the privileges committee questioned mrjohnson about why he had told the commons that covid guidance had not been broken in downing street. they showed him photographs like this one, of a leaving do in november 2020, which they said suggested he himself had seen guidance being broken. the guidance does not say you can have a thank you party and as many people in the room as you like, it s very important to thank people. the guidance doesn t say that. i accept that not everybody is perfectly socially distanced in that picture, but that did not mean to me, when i stood up in the house of commons and said that the guidance was followed completely, i was not thinking of that event and thinking that somehow, that contravened the guidance. absolutely not. we were making a huge effort to follow the guidance. mrjohnson also said that he would believe until the day he died that it had been his job to thank staff, and gatherings to do so had been essen
it comes to guidance on this says that he did not tell borisjohnson that he did not tell borisjohnson that no overt guidance was broken in number ten. there are different accounts on this evidence of what exactly went on and it feels likely that something that could come up indicating this afternoon, this question of if the legal rules were not broken, was the guidance broken? we know the legal stuff was broken because boris johnson we know the legal stuff was broken because borisjohnson was eventually fined, but his team and some of his advisers seem to have been drawing a distinction between the two things. as i say, there are other parts of this if few pages back where different aids, some of them mps, a parliamentary secretary to boris johnson at the time for example saying mrjohnson was told that meetings before the key prime minister s questions session is that rules had been followed, so he will have that line of defence later but thatis have that line of defence later but
december, not eight february, and seeing two dates, this is the 8th of december prime minister s questions were talking about, in this matters because boris johnson were talking about, in this matters because borisjohnson did take a section of his opening statement in prime minister s questions out, so he did not refer to all rules and guidance been followed but did say it later in prime minister s questions in response to an answer, a question from a labour mp. that s something the committee will ask about, whether that was correct, whether the stock should have been corrected a lot earlier, and i want to go to another bet, which is a bit punchier, a bit easier to read, on page 66. this is the evidence of simon case, cabinet secretary, the most senior civil servant in the country, about what he told boris johnson when it came to advice about what had gone on in downing street, arejust some simple what had gone on in downing street, are just some simple questions from sue gray, it appe
evidence that borisjohnson released yesterday, what are your thoughts and what is the reaction you are sensing from the conservative party to that? we will taunt, would there be a smoking gun? there really isn t, it is what borisjohnson has been saying throughout, hairsplitting about whether or not the committee is meant to be investigating the rules are the guidance for the law, and claims his behaviour broke the part that is not illegal, but not the part that is illegal. attempts to disparage the process, i do not think it is going to change many people s mind either way, ultimately, the problem for the prime minister, we have the photographs of the gatherings, he did not really admit to that until the photographs came out, and there is a gulf between those pictures and what they represent versus what people were going through all over the nation at the time. and his explanation. maybe he didn t,
over it, and this afternoon what you will see is them putting what they think are the key elements to boris johnson and saying we have got this evidence from simon case that says he did not tell you no parties were held or that all the guidance and covid rules were followed. is that right? who did tell you? that is probably a line of question we will see this after in. taste probably a line of question we will see this after in. see this after in. we will let you read more see this after in. we will let you read more and see this after in. we will let you read more and then see this after in. we will let you read more and then probably i see this after in. we will let you i read more and then probably come back to you. a bit of a westminster team in the bbc newsroom having a look to help you through the details there. thank you for now. inflation unexpectedly increased last month after three consecutive months of easing. the ratejumped to 10.4% in the year to february. that s up