Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

Boris Johnson is being pretty defiant. He’s arguing that a leaving do he was photographed at - which shows a lack of social distancing - “had to happen” and was “necessary” because two senior members of staff had left in acrimonious circumstances and he needed to give reassurance, and it was “essential” for work purposes.

He seems to be hammering this point about "necessity" as one of his key defences – the question will be whether that washes with the committee, who will be aware other key workers who still had to go to physical workplaces did not consider in-person leaving dos "necessary".

Remember though, the committee is not reopening the inquiry into whether these events were in the rules or not. They're trying to work out if he should have known they were not -- and told Parliament as much.

There's quite a bit of back and forth happening between Johnson and Jenkin over the issue of "guidance".

A large screen is showing a photo of Johnson in the House of Commons at one of these gatherings where social distancing rules were seemingly being broken.

Jenkin is reading out the exact guidance from the Covid rules at the time, particularly the need for risk mitigations when distancing wasn't possible, such as screens or barriers.

He asks Johnson to point out where in the picture were there screens or barriers?

Johnson is adamant this was an impromptu gathering to thank staff for their contribution during Covid.

"I accept that perfect social distancing, Sir Bernard, is not being observed" - but goes on to say that was "not incompatible with the guidance".

Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative MP, has begun to question Boris Johnson, noting statements from the former prime minister which make clear his understanding of how important it was to follow the rules.

"So there can be no doubt that you knew what the guidance and rules meant?", asks Jenkin.

"Yes," replies Johnson.

Jenkin shows Johnson a picture of him at an event where he is a small room, holding a drink and appearing to offer a cheers to the room. The pictures shows the leaving party of his outgoing communications chief Lee Cain in November 2020.

Asked if he accepts if people were not making an effort to socially distance from each other in the picture, Johnson says he doesn't accept this.

"At all stages the guidance was meant to be implemented where possible, that is absolutely clear from the guidance", he adds.

Johnson says the "confines of No 10" - given how small the building and rooms within it are - made social distancing impossible much of the time.

On why a leaving party was necessary, Johnson says it was important to be there and give reassurances to staff after the acrimonious departure of other people.

"I believe that the guidance is being complied with," he says, pressed by Jenkin who suggests he wasn't answering the question.

Rob Corp
Live reporter

With that, Johnson's opening statement ends. The committee is now asking its questions.

The first comes from veteran Conservative Bernard Jenkin - one of four Tories on the committee.

He says at all times he was entirely transparent with the House of Commons.

"I apologise, I apologise for inadvertently misleading this house, but to say I did it recklessly or deliberately is completely untrue, as the evidence shows," he says.

He says officials in all government departments should be "immensely proud" that they protected the country from Covid and took them through the lockdowns - he also credits the vaccine roll out.

And with that, Johnson finishes his opening comments.

Johnson says the fact details of the birthday gathering he was fined for were briefed to the Times newspaper is evidence of the "innocence" with which the event was regarded, adding that it did not jump out at the journalist or "eagle-eyed" readers of the newspaper.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing. we're talking about what I believed at the time," he says, on whether social distancing guidance should have been more "ruthlessly enforced" in Downing Street.

Johnson gets into granular detail of what was said at the time and what the Covid rules and guidance was at various times during the Pandemic.

Turning to statements he made on 8 December 2021 at Prime Minister's Questions, Johnson says the evidence demonstrates he was assured all events fell within the rules by aides ahead of stating they were in the House of Commons.

However, the committee has heard different accounts from some of the most senior officials in No 10, and we know that Johnson also told MPs guidance was followed, not just rules.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

Boris Johnson is always someone who has used – or attempted to use – humour in his speeches, even when he is trying to get out of the stickiest of situations.

He defends his view that his attendance at gatherings was in the rules, saying that during the birthday gathering for him - which the police gave him a fine for - the cake was put in a Tupperware box and later all eaten by his private secretaries.

The comment gets a few wry smiles in the room from spectators in the room. But he’s clearly trying to keep his tone more serious than usual, given what’s at stake for his political career.

Johnson gives examples of mitigation measures in place at Downing Street to limit the spread of Covid, including large numbers of people working from home, keeping windows open and working outside as much as possible.

He argues it was not "obvious", as the committee has suggested, that guidance was being breached.

Johnson says he was at the gatherings in question for only 10 or 15 minutes, "perhaps a maximum of 25" in one case.

Referring to events to mark staff members leaving, he says "I will believe until the day I die" that it was the PM's job to thank staff for their hard work.

He argues the police agreed - as they did not fine him for attending any farewell gatherings.

Johnson hits out at the committee chair - Labour's Harriet Harmen - and says "much of this interrogation is theoretically irrelevant, but I'm going to take that in my stride"

He says he wants to help the chair to understand why he said what he said to Parliament and "whether I deliberately set out to deceive".

"I emphatically did not," he adds.

Johnson reiterates that he made these statements in "good faith", something he wrote in yesterday's evidence submission.

On social distancing in No 10, Johnson says "it's a cramped, narrow, 18th Century townhouse"​ and staff gave each other a "wide a berth as we could".

Image source, .

Boris Johnson has resumed his statement, reiterating the point if guidance or rule-breaking was obvious, it "must have been equally obvious" to dozens of the most senior officials and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as well.

On the contrary, Johnson says, the overwhelming evidence is these individuals believed that the guidance was being followed

Johnson adds there is a "total silence" of evidence of anyone believing guidance had been broken.

He says it was "obvious that they were going against the guidance", then "you're not only accusing me of lying" but also accusing all those civil servants and advisors.

Johnson says the committee are "not giving them a chance to explain themselves", adding he doesn't "think you seriously mean to accuse them or me of lying".

A reminder that earlier today we saw evidence from No 10's former comms director backing up Dominic Cummings account that he warned the prime minister a garden party in May 2020 should not have been held. Johnson says Cummings can't be trusted on this.

At the start of the session the ex-PM swore to "tell the truth and nothing but the truth".

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

Before the break, Boris Johnson said No 10 would not have allowed an official photographer to take pictures if it were "obvious" they were breaking the rules.

This is intended to be a direct challenge to the committee's thoughts, laid out in their interim report, that some of the rule-breaking would have been obvious to him at the time.

I suspect we will hear him return to these official photographs, and the fact his birthday gathering was briefed to The Times newspaper at the time too, as suggestions he thought he was following the rules.

Rob Corp
Live reporter

MPs have returned from voting on the Windsor Framework. I expect we'll hear some more from Boris Johnson as he completes his opening statement.

Then the committee will work through their questions as they try to establish whether or not he deliberately or recklessly misled Parliament.

Watch committee chairwoman Harriet Harman set out the purpose of the work of the Privileges Committee a short while ago, and why exactly MPs are investigating Boris Johnson.

Johnson claimed the committee had "found nothing to show that I was warned in advance that events in No 10 were illegal”.

He also said no-one raised any "anxieties" about any events before or after they took place.

If there had been such an anxiety this “unquestionably would have been escalated to me”, he said.

Johnson used his statement to downplay some of the evidence received by the committee about alleged rule-breaking parties.

Photos show him "getting a few words of thanks at a work event", he said.

Or, Johnson asserted, they show "events which I was never fined for attending".

If rules were broken, this must have been "obvious" to others - including the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak - too, he said.

Before they went to vote, Johnson said the whole of the No 10 operation "knew how vital it was to maintain public confidence in the fight against Covid".

He added that they all knew they should do what they had asked the public to do.

Johnson referred to the testimony of his former aide Dominic Cummings, who he said had "every motive to lie" and was not supported by "documentary evidence".

He said the committee had not gathered any evidence that he lied, but that it had in fact gathered evidence he did not know the rules were broken.

The former PM said he has asked the committee to publish all the evidence it produced, but it had not.

He also accused the panel of refusing to allow his legal team to add their own evidence.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from the hearing

Supportive Tory MP Michael Fabricant gives Boris Johnson a big pat on the back as he walks out of the committee room - with Johnson and other MPs - to go and vote.

Rob Corp
Live reporter

The committee has suspended its sitting while House of Commons votes on the Windsor Framework. It's set to restart in 15 minutes.

What we have heard from Johnson so far is him reiterating the points he made in the dossier he supplied to the committee and was published yesterday.

It is the committee's job to question and probe his statements.

Image source, PA Media

Johnson says that before Sue Gray's report and the outcome of the police investigation were made public there was "a near universal belief" at No 10 that rules and guidance were being complied with.

He says this belief "governed what I said in the House" and that as soon as it was clear this was wrong he corrected the record.

Johnson adds that he was "deeply shocked" when fines were issued by police for gatherings in government buildings.