It seemed like the same old story. A scandal takes place. The government lies about it. Evidence that they are lying emerges. The government keeps lying. Eventually everyone gets so sick of it that it blows over.

That was certainly what most expected after reports that Boris Johnson had lied about his disgraced former deputy chief whipThe whips, led by the chief whip, are responsible for maintaining discipline in political parties. They put pressure on their parties' MPs to vote according to the wishes of the leadership. Chris Pincher. Many believed he had been aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against Pincher before he appointed him. 

Downing Street10 Downing Street, in central London, has been the official home of the UK prime minister since 1735. changed its story but stuck to its guns. Everyone was braced for yet another routine scandal.

But yesterday, the narrative went off script as Simon McDonald, previously the most senior Foreign OfficeThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is responsible for managing foreign affairs on behalf of the UK government. official, directly accused Johnson of lying.

This morning, Boris Johnson faces a backbench mutiny as he attempts to cling onto power after a nightmare double resignation by Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid yesterday.

Rebel Tory MPs last night warned the PM that they will change the party's rules so he can be ousted if he tries to carry on as leader - with some saying he could even be "gone by the weekend".

They told the prime minister he faces the threat of another confidence vote next week, which would trigger a leadership contest if he loses. Asked what will happen if Johnson refuses to quit, a rebel ringleader last night replied: "War."

It was a stunning intervention by McDonald. Civil servantsAnyone working in a government department. The civil service has long-standing traditions and strict codes of conduct that can make it a law unto itself. do not usually make the news. They are expected to be strictly impartial. Their role is to keep the machinery of government working. For McDonald to speak out, he must think the matter is very serious indeed.

That is why some think this is proof of the old saying, "the truth will out": the idea that in the end, truth will always win out over lies.

The phrase was first used by William Shakespeare. He derived it from an earlier saying, "murder will out", which was based on the superstition that if a murderer approaches the corpse of their victim, it will alert others by starting to bleed again.

The idea that "the truth will out" thus encapsulates a fundamental notion common to all human beings: the need to believe that every injustice will be made right.

The same principle underpins the belief in most world religions that when we die, we are judged for our deeds. This tradition goes back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the heart of the deceased would be weighed as they entered the afterlife. If their sins had made their heart heavy, it would be devoured by the goddess AmmitAn ancient Egyptian goddess who was part lion, part hippopotamus and part crocodile. It is believed she was represented by these three animals because they were the largest animals known to the Egyptians that would eat human beings..

All three Abrahamic religions believe that God is omniscientAll-knowing, or having the ability to see everything., so even if you succeed in lying about your sins to others, the truth will come out on the day of judgement. 

And Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism all believe that good and bad deeds produce karmaA Sanskrit word meaning both an action or deed and its consequences. In philosophical and religious terms, it refers to the idea that good and bad deeds are rewarded and punished accordingly., which naturally causes positive and negative outcomes. There is simply no way of covering up the truth.

Some philosophers have suggested that society must have a bias in favour of truth, otherwise it will collapse. Indeed, Immanuel Kant went as far as to argue that telling the truth is an absolute moral imperative in all situations.

He claimed that an action can only be moral if everyone is able to do it unconditionally. So if we believe lying is right for one person in one situation, we must endorse lying in all situations, which would mean we could no longer believe anything anyone said. 

We must even tell the truth, he wrote, if a murderer asks us where to find our best friend. That is better than living in a society in which nothing and nobody can be trusted.

Yes: There is no such thing as a perfect crime. And we all have a conscience that tells us to do the right thing and to own up to our wrongdoings. It is very hard for a lie to escape from these two facts.

No: Billions of lies, huge and small, cruel and kind, are told every single day. In most cases it is not worth the energy of tracking down the truth. Some truths might come out, but it is a liar's world.

Or... Very few statements are unambiguously "true". They might be generalisations, oversimplifications or just inaccurate. This is only a problem when the aim is to do harm.