Boris Johnson has called for a Tory MP to step down from the partygate probe amid extraordinary claims he attended a gathering during lockdown.
The former prime minister wants Sir Bernard Jenkin to resign from the privileges committee, which has been investigating whether he misled MPs over the lockdown scandal.
Johnson quit parliament last week after receiving a copy of the committee’s report - believed to say he is guilty and recommend a lengthy suspension from Commons.
But in another dramatic twist on on the eve of the report’s publication, the Guido Fawkes website reported claims that Jenkin attended a drinks party while covid restrictions were still in place.
They reported that Jenkin went to a gathering held by Commons deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing in December 2020, when London was in Tier 2 measures restricting indoor mixing.
“If this is true it is outrageous and a total contempt of parliament,” Johnson told the blog.
“Bernard Jenkin has just voted to expel me from parliament for allegedly trying to conceal from parliament my knowledge of illicit events.
“In reality of course I did no such thing.
“Now it turns out he may have for the whole time known that he himself attended an event – and concealed this from the privileges committee and the whole House for the last year.
“To borrow the language of the committee, if this is the case, he 'must have known' he was in breach of the rules. Why didn’t he say so?
“He has no choice but to explain his actions to his own committee, for his colleagues to investigate and then to resign.”
The two men clashed during a hearing of the committee in March, when Jenkin grew impatient with Johnson’s answers and told him to stop repeating himself.
Both Jenkin and Laing have been approached for comment.