Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was earlier told his answers were taking "longer than needed" and that he was "repeating himself".

This is followed by a discussion about social distancing at any of the gatherings he attended.

Speaking about the email invitation to the garden gathering, Yvonne Fovargue says the then director of communications, Lee Cain, described the tone of the email as being clearly in breach of Covid guidance.

Cain also raised concerns with Martin Reynolds, Johnson's principal private secretary at the time, the Labour MP adds.

Asked if any concerns were raised with Johnson at the time, he says Cain was concerned about the optics, not the rules, and "certainly no concerns were raised with me".

Johnson says: "I think he was concerned the impression people might gain if they looked over the garden wall coming from the media room and thought we were doing something other people weren't allowed to do."

He adds he believes it was within the guidance and rules.

Image source, Privileges Committee

The questioning now turns to an event in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020.

Labour MP Yvonne Fovargue says there's evidence up to 40 people were present at the same time, Johnson was there and that an email invitation, from his then-Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds was sent to some 200 people and encouraged them to bring their own alcohol.

She asks if Johnson saw the email invitation before it was made public, to which he responds: "No."

He also says he was not aware the email was sent to around 200 people.

Johnson claims his understanding of the purpose of the gathering was that it was to thank staff working hard on Covid in "a ventilated area".

He adds that the cabinet secretary had just stepped down and civil servants needed to feel "business was carrying on".

He says he was aware of the gathering only "briefly" before it took place.

Asked by Labour's Yvonne Fovargue if it would have been obvious his birthday gathering in 2020 - which Johnson was fined by police for attending - breached the guidance, the former PM denies this.

He repeats it is a "measure of how unobvious this was" that the details of the events were briefed to the Times newspaper.

Johnson says this briefing to the newspaper was "slightly embellished", adding he had no sense the event broke either the rules or guidance at the time.

He adds nobody suggested to him that it was, before he talked about the event in the House of Commons.

Pressed on whether he later reflected on the event, he says he did not as it had been a long time before and he had forgotten about it.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

When the committee put to him a moment ago that the attendees at his birthday gathering in the cabinet room included his wife and his interior designer, Johnson was quick to try and correct them - calling Lulu Lytle a "contractor who was working in the building".

He's keen to use language that grounds all these gatherings in a "work", not social, setting.

This birthday gathering did take place before a meeting. But he's been challenged on why people like Carrie Johnson and Lulu Lytle needed to be there, given they weren't going to attend the meeting afterwards.

Johnson's defence here relies on No 10 being unusual because the prime minister lives and works in the same building. He repeated his prior defence that it wasn't obvious to him rules were broken because the celebration was briefed to the Times newspaper at the time.

Johnson is being shown pictures of a gathering for his birthday in the Cabinet Room with at least 17 other people, which included his wife and their interior designer. He's asked if this is correct.

Johnson says: "Yes there was a contractor working in the building who popped their head around the door very briefly."

Johnson was issued with a fixed penalty notice for this event, and people who weren't work colleagues attended, the MP says.

Johnson says this event took place on his birthday and was reasonably necessary for work purposes and that he was at his desk surrounded by officials.

He says it seemed to be a perfectly proper thing to do before having a meeting.

"Presumably your wife and the contractor weren't attending that meeting?" he's asked.

He says his wife lives in No 10, the same building that he works in, and she's entitled to use any part of that building.

Image source, Cabinet Office/PA Wire

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

It's quite fascinating watching this play out from where I'm sat - directly behind Boris Johnson.

His legal adviser is periodically handing him some notes and pointing to sections of his written submission to the committee outlining his defence, which was published yesterday.

Johnson has got a big stack of A4 sheets of paper with him too - many covered in handwritten scribbled notes.

Just before we moved on to the next set of questions, Jenkin interrupted Johnson to request, not for the first time, that he give shorter answers and repeat himself less.

Johnson said he finds it "unlikely" he made the comment he was attending the "least socially distanced event in the country right now" at one of the gatherings.

Jenkin noted he is not denying using the words.

The pair share a slightly confused and disjointed exchange about whether Johnson commented on the social distancing of other events he attended, and whether this is relevant to the current gathering in question.

Jenkin concluded it is fair to say Johnson had commented on a lack of social distancing, to which Johnson repeats his statement that guidance was followed where possible.

Committee chair Harriet Harman tells Johnson to answer the panel's questions as "succinctly as possible".

Sir Bernard Jenkin earlier took issue with what he felt were long replies from the former PM.

Johnson is now being questioned about a gathering in 2020 in the Cabinet Room to mark his birthday, and a gathering for staff in the No 10 garden.

Image source, Sue Gray Report/Cabinet Office/PA Wire

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

Boris Johnson needs to be careful what he says – remember he’s sworn an oath to tell the truth, meaning if he doesn’t he could be accused of perjury, a criminal offence.

When asked whether he said, at one gathering, it was the "most unsocially distanced event" in the UK, he couldn't deny he said it.

Instead, he just said he didn't remember saying those words, and thinks it’s unlikely he would have said them.

The ex-PM's being asked about a leaving do in November 2020 during lockdown for a special adviser where more than 20 people attended.

Johnson says he was there briefly for the leaving do of Cleo Watson, and he said it lasted a very short time

He says he and Watson gave short speeches.

He adds that the quotation that there were four to five people deep and more than 20 in attendance doesn't accord with his memory.

Johnson is asked whether he really joked at the gathering that it was the most unsocially distanced event in the UK at the time. Johnson says he doesn't remember saying those words.

Reality Check

Boris Johnson has defended the leaving do on 13 November 2020 which he was pictured at, saying: "The guidance specifically allows for workplace freedoms to decide how to implement it."

But what the guidance for England said was that social distancing of two metres or one metre with mitigation should be followed. If that wasn't possible the activity should have been redesigned or potentially stopped.

There was nothing in the guidance that permitted work gatherings such as leaving drinks.

Remember that Downing Street insiders told the BBC that at the event being discussed: "there were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other's laps".

We don't know whether Boris Johnson was there at that time - he says he didn't stay longer than 25 minutes.

We're back in the room and Bernard Jenkin is continuing to question Boris Johnson over the issue of "guidance" - especially as they relate to leaving dos at No 10.

Johnson discussed his correction of record on the day of Sue Gray's final report.

He says it took place six days after the completion of the police investigation.

Johnson added: "At all times I was entirely transparent with the House". He explained that he made it clear he did not want to comment on any of the matters until the investigation was completed.

Jenkin asked the former prime minister whether he would have told the country at a Covid press conference if it was OK to hold unsocially distanced leaving gatherings at work.

Johnson said he would have argued it was up to organisations to work out how they implement the guidance and where they couldn't keep one to two metres apart they are entitled to do so with mitigations.

He added he believed No 10 was "exceptional" given how much Covid testing was going on.

And he told the committee "people followed social distancing and were acutely aware of it".

Jenkin finished up there by turning to the question of whether or not just the guidance but the rules were being followed.

The Conservative MP pointed out that the gathering on 13 November (pictured below) was judged by police to have broken the rule as fines were issued (although not to Johnson himself).

Johnson insisted he believed this event - to mark the departure of his then director of communications Lee Cain - was “reasonably necessary for work purposes”.

He said two senior advisers had left their jobs in "very challenging circumstances" and it was necessary to "steady the ship".

Johnson stressed he was present for a maximum of 25 minutes and his own participation "did not fall foul of the rules".

He said the gathering was not a party or a social event, adding: "If anybody thinks I was partying during lockdown they are completely wrong."

Ione Wells
Political correspondent

Boris Johnson is getting more rattled by suggestions he has misrepresented his own social distancing rules. He talked about No 10 maintaining social distancing "wherever possible", despite photographs showing people standing close together.

He appeared the tensest yet when they quoted back to him his "hands, face, space" mantra from the time, and reminded him that the rules at the time required people to stay 2m apart – or 1m with mitigations.

The tricky thing for him here is there’s nothing from the photograph to suggest mitigations were in place at that photographed leaving do.

Image source, Sue Gray Report/Cabinet Office/PA Wire

Rob Corp
Live reporter

The division bell rings in the committee room which means the MPs have to go and vote.

The chair of the Privileges Committee Harriet Harman says they will pause for 15 minutes.

We're working through Johnson's most-recent answers to Sir Bernard Jenkin's questions.

If you're just joining us... here's a key bit of Johnson's opening statement, where he rejected that he deliberately misled MPs and argued there's no evidence he did so.