UK Government’s bill for Boris Johnson’s partygate legal advice rises to £222,000
The UK Government expects to pay up to £222,000 in legal fees to help Boris Johnson defend himself against allegations he misled Parliament over partygate, MPs have heard.
Solicitors firm Peters and Peters was awarded a contract worth £129,700 in August 2021 to provide Mr Johnson with advice during the investigation into his conduct by the House of Commons Privileges Committee.
At a meeting of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) on Thursday, Cabinet Office permanent secretary Alex Chisholm revealed that the amount had since increased to £222,000, due to the length of the Privileges Committee inquiry.
But he admitted it was not a limit and could increase again depending on how long the inquiry takes.
He said: “At the moment we have estimated that it would be up to a figure of £200,000, which has been published – £222,000 to be precise.
“We hope and expect that will be a maximum figure but obviously we don’t want to anticipate and certainly could not regulate the conduct of the committee, which is entirely up to them.”
Contempt of Parliament
The Privileges Committee is investigating whether the former prime minister committed contempt of Parliament by telling the Commons on several occasions that there were no lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.
The contract with Peters and Peters has already paid for legal advice from leading KC Lord Pannick, who has produced two opinions on the inquiry.
The first was published on the Government’s website in September 2021 and claimed the Privileges Committee was adopting an “unfair procedure” and a “fundamentally flawed” approach.
This opinion was rejected by the Privileges Committee, which said it was based on “a systemic misunderstanding of the parliamentary process and misplaced analogies with the criminal law”.
Questioned by the PACAC on Thursday, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden admitted it was unusual for such opinions to be published, but said it had happened before.
Mr Chisholm told the committee it was “normal” for the Government to pay the legal fees of former ministers when an inquiry related to their ministerial conduct, and the contract with Peters and Peters had received “very full scrutiny from all the relevant people”.
Lord Pannick’s second opinion has not been published, but Mr Dowden was unable to say why as he had not been a minister at the time.
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Nearing a quarter of a million pound, to defend a known liar, when pictures of him at said parties are in the public domain, and video available of him denying just about everything in the house of commons. This should come out of the £800,000 loan he arranged, when appointing a person to a senior position at the BBC.
Surely every true Tory must agree that Boris is worth every penny if only to defend against vicious unwarranted attacks on his good name
There are no lengths to which the disgraced former alleged prime minister will not go to waste public money.
He is well over the income limit for legal aid, so why is he receiving it?
If an industry needs investigation it is the law society. How they justify and get away with such exhorbitant fees is unbelievable!! But there again most of them are in the pockets of “old boys” politicians who put lucrative work their way.
Ironic. The same party that cut Legal Aid for the less well off has agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to defend a very rich, devious man.
The sooner they are out of power the better!
We pay is the truth, all our taxes spaffed up a comedy bigot only England endorses. There needs real scrutiny why we are still part of a fake union that promotes drunks to power and supplies them with cheap booze at work.
Fat Shanks must have that in roubles down the back of his expensive wine stained sofa…
As Mr Crace puts it…the government is just taking the p*ss…