Downing Street has released a legal opinion from eminent lawyer Lord Pannick, which found that an inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament is being conducted by an “unfair procedure” which would be ruled “unlawful” by courts.
The opinion was commissioned by the Cabinet Office after MPs voted for an inquiry into whether Johnson’s denials of lockdown-breaching parties at No 10 amounted to a contempt of parliament.
Lord Pannick, who has previously appeared against the government, found that it was “wrong in principle” for the committee, chaired by Labour’s Harriet Harman, to pass judgement not only on whether the PM “knowingly misled” parliament, but also on whether he simply “misled” it.
Because of parliamentary privilege, the committee’s decisions cannot be challenged in court.
But Lord Pannick said: “In our opinion, the committee is proposing to adopt an approach to the substantive issues which is wrong in principle in important respects, and the committee is also proposing to adopt an unfair procedure.
“But for parliamentary privilege, a court hearing a judicial review brought by Mr Johnson would in our view declare the approach taken by the committee to be unlawful.”
The 22-page document – whose contents were leaked to newspapers friendly to Mr Johnson ahead of publication – argued that a finding of contempt would require proof that the PM misled parliament intentionally.
And it said that it was “unfair” that the identities of witnesses might be withheld from Mr Johnson and that he might be denied the opportunity to cross-examine them.
