Boris testimony questioned
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 12:00 AM
By Ian Dunt
Further questions are being raised about the account Boris Johnson gave to the home affairs select committee about his knowledge of the arrest of Damian Green.
Mr Johnson has already received a letter from the committee chairman, Keith Vaz, to clarify his account of when he talked to Tory leader David Cameron that day, but he has now been forced to write Mr Johnson a second letter asking for further details.
"In oral evidence to the committee, then immediately after the formal session had ceased, and then in subsequent communications, you have given no fewer than four different accounts of the communications you had with leader of the opposition regarding the arrest of Damian Green," Mr Vaz wrote today.
"The disparities between the evidence you gave us and your subsequent communications have led my committee to express concerns about your apparent level of preparation to give formal evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons," he continued.
"We are also concerned about the level of respect and courtesy you have shown the committee in providing evidence and especially in your subsequent communications.
"The committee are unanimously resolved in their decision to request that you now provide a prompt written clarification of the actual times of the calls made to David Cameron on the day of Damian Green's arrest, with some indication of the basis on which you can now be confident of your evidence."
The mayor of London won his first letter after taking Mr Vaz aside following his last committee appearance and telling him his original account may not have been quite accurate. Since then he has changed his account once again.
Mr Green, shadow immigration minister, was arrested last year following a police investigation into Home Office leaks.
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