Boris Johnson was spotted in a pub in Kent seemingly without a care in the world the night before a damning report revealed he misled Parliament over ‘Partygate’ during lockdown.

The former Prime Minister posed for selfies and laughed with locals at The Milk House in The Street, Sissinghurst.

Wearing a suit and appearing very relaxed Mr Johnson, spent his evening enjoying the hospitality on the marque-covered terrace in the garden of the 19th century former coaching inn which offers a menu including wood fired pizzas and serves locally sourced cask ales.

Today,a cross-party investigation found he had held 16 gatherings at Number 10 and Chequers during the height of the Covid lockdown.

The Privileges Committee said he had deliberately mislead MPs with his partygate denials before being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation.

He was branded the first former Prime Minster to have ever lied to the Commons and, if he hadn’t resigned on Friday, would be facing a 90-day suspension.

The committee recommended he should not receive the pass granting access to Parliament which is normally given to former MPs.

The 30,000 word report concluded the former PM had misled Parliament on multiple occasions, including twice in December 2021 and once in May 2022.

It asserted he had “personal knowledge about gatherings which he should have disclosed” and concluded that he “committed a serious contempt” in “deliberately misleading the House”.

Mr Johnson issued a 1,678-word statement in response where he claimed it was a “kangaroo court” which “was being driven relentlessly by the political agenda of Harriet Harman, and supplied with skewed legal advice – with the sole political objective of finding me guilty and expelling me from parliament.”

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: "He's a disgraced Prime Minister. He shouldn't be anywhere near Parliament. He should apologise for the people for what he put them through."

Analysis from political editor Paul Francis

If you have ever poked a stick in a wasps nest, you’ll have some idea of just how angry the former Prime Minister is over the long-awaited report into ‘partygate.’

Never one to hold back on his opinions, he issued his own damning statement on the Privileges committee, describing it - again - as a kangaroo report and in true conspiracy mode, said that its purpose from the beginning was to find him guilty.

He seemed to have had selective memory loss as in March, he said that he “had the utmost respect for the integrity of the committee and all its members.”

As to his response to the highly critical report, his lack of empathy with those facing the trauma of not being able to be with family members in care homes and hospitals stands out.

In his efforts to defend parties at Downing Street, he argued they were necessary to boost the morale of staff at a time of great pressure and as such, were compliant with the rules.

Not many who diligently observed the rules on social distancing would accept that but Johnson is a politician uniquely capable of coming down on the wrong side of an argument.

“If you have ever poked a stick in a wasps nest, you’ll have some idea of just how angry the former Prime Minister is...”

Like Trump, he will use this in the anti-establishment play book to try to plot a way back into politics by characterising his opponents as politicians who, for some inexplicable reason, are ‘out to get him.”

But as the swirl of claim and counter-claim continues, there will be many who consider this introspective navel-gazing as further evidence that our self-absorbed politicians have a strange set of priorities.

When you have political debate focused on the minutiae of whether a surprise lockdown birthday party for the then PM - with cake - breached Covid rules, that is not evidence of a government that understands what the priorities should be.

Of course, transparency and accountability are crucial to political integrity - along with telling the truth. But when there is more political energy being expended on partygate and whether something is a “gathering” compliant with Covid rules than is being expended on the cost of living crisis, something is not quite right.

This is not the end of the saga as MPs will now have to debate the findings of the committee and come to their own conclusions. Let’s hope that then draws a line under the saga.