Boris Johnson ready to SUE civil service over new lockdown 'stitch up'
Boris Johnson has threatened to sue the Government after it handed over extracts from his prime ministerial diaries to police
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Boris Johnson has threatened to sue the Government after it handed over extracts from his prime ministerial diaries to police without telling him.
The Cabinet Office referred the former Prime Minister to two constabularies over journal entries which are claimed to show that colleagues and friends visited him at Chequers during the pandemic.
The Commons privileges committee, which is investigating whether Johnson lied to Parliament over lockdown breaches, also received a letter from civil servants.
Sources close to Johnson said he had already received legal advice and none of the events broke Covid rules.
The Cabinet Office referred the former Prime Minister to two constabularies over journal entries which show that colleagues and friends visited him at Chequers during the pandemic
PA
A friend said that the ex-Prime Minister was "seriously considering" legal action.
"It appears the Cabinet Office has written to the privileges committee claiming that these events constitute lockdown breaches. That is not true and it is seriously defamatory,’ a source told the Daily Mail.
Allies of Boris Johnson suggested the move was "politically motivated" and questioned whether the now Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, had a hand in the decision.
However, this has been strongly denied by those close to him. A Cabinet Office source said: "Ministers were not involved in this chain of events that led to this information being passed to the police at all."
Whitehall sources insisted the decision to hand the extracts to officers was not considered by ministers or by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.
A Johnson ally said: "Is this an attempt by Dowden to stitch him up? It feels very political – as if people are determined to keep him bogged down in Partygate.
"But it is going to fall apart very quickly. We are talking about a handful of events, mostly work meetings. All of them were covered by the rules."
Officials did not inform Johnson or his legal team about the diary entries before referring them to the police last week.
He gave lawyers permission to access his diary which details all his meetings, to assist his defence as part of the public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.
While conducting a "disclosure review", the lawyers became concerned about details of lockdown visitors to Chequers.
Officials did not inform Johnson or his legal team about the diary entries before referring them to the police last week
PA
They felt obliged to pass the information to Cabinet Office officials, who then contacted police.
A spokesman for Johnson said: "The assertion by the Cabinet Office that there have been further Covid rule breaches is totally untrue. Lawyers have examined the events in question and advised that they were lawful.
"No contact was made with Mr Johnson before these incorrect allegations were made both to the police and to the privileges committee. This is both bizarre and unacceptable. For whatever political purpose, it is plain that a last-ditch attempt is being made to lengthen the committee investigation as it was coming to a conclusion and to undermine Mr Johnson.
"Mr Johnson’s lawyers have written to the police forces involved to explain in detail why the Cabinet Office is entirely wrong in its assertions."
A friend of Mr Johnson said: "His political enemies in the Cabinet Office have just handed the diary entries over to the police without telling him or asking him any questions. It is nakedly political."