Boris Johnson: MPs to decide on report that said former prime minister misled parliament

MPs will decide later whether to endorse a report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about closing parties in the 10th highest.

A year-long inquiry by the House of Commons Privileges Committee said the former prime minister had committed repeated wrongdoing with his Partygate denials.

He recommends that he should have been suspended from the House of Commons for 90 days if he had remained an MP.

Rishi Sunak has yet to confirm whether he will vote on his findings.

It will be a free vote for Tory MPs, meaning party managers – known as whips – will not be directing them on what to do in the vote, which is expected to take place on Monday evening after the debate.

Asked by ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Sunak repeatedly refused to say whether he would vote on the report, saying it was “a matter for the House of Representatives”. [of Commons]Not to the government.”

“This is an important distinction and that’s why I don’t want to influence anyone before this vote,” he said.

It is possible that some Conservative MPs will abstain or not show up to participate.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove, who also served in Johnson’s government, has confirmed he intends to abstain – becoming the only member of Sunak’s cabinet to say what he intends to do.

Speaking on Sunday, he told the BBC that there were areas where Johnson’s behavior had fallen short of expectations, but that he disagreed with the report’s recommendation for a 90-day suspension.

The vote is politically difficult for the prime minister, who is locked in a bitter war of words with his former boss over his resignation honors roll.

Mr Sunak has pledged to put “integrity” at the heart of his government as he enters Downing Street and will come under pressure from opposition MPs to agree to the findings of the cross-party committee.

But a vote for him would anger Johnson’s supporters, some of whom attacked the committee over their conclusions.

Johnson himself also criticized the committee in an angry statement announcing his resignation as MP before the report was published, calling it a “kangaroo court”.

The House of Commons vote is initially conducted by vote, with division – in which MPs pass through voting lobbies to register their support – only called if the Speaker believes the outcome is unclear.

It is expected that the opposition MPs will shout “Aye” later to approve the report, but if no MP in the House shouts “No” then there will be no division, which means that the votes of the MPs will not be recorded.

The Privileges Committee said in its report that Johnson knowingly misled MPs when he assured them after the Partygate scandal emerged that lockdown rules were always followed at No. 10.

Mr Johnson argued during the inquest that his assertions were made in good faith and were based on advice from officials.

But MPs found he had “personal knowledge” of incidents of rule-breaking, and failed to “proactively” investigate allegations of breaches of Covid rules during the pandemic.

They concluded that he had committed several “contempts” of Parliament – including by attacking the Committee, which they added justified the 90-day ban, lengthy by the standards of recent years.

The report also recommends that Mr Johnson should be denied parliamentary leave, to which he is normally entitled as a former Member of Parliament.

Many of Johnson’s allies criticized the commission for its findings.

Nadine Dorries, who was the culture secretary in Johnson’s government, said the committee had “exaggerated”, warning that any Tory MPs who voted down would be “accountable” by party members.

However, it is not clear how many of his allies would eventually be willing to show up to register their opposition.