Most MPs accept Partygate report and strip Boris Johnson of parliamentary pass

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson will be stripped of his parliamentary pass after the Commons voted overwhelmingly to accept the privileges committee report into lockdown parties.

The partygate report found the former UK prime minster Boris Johnson misled the House of Commons. Picture: AFP

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson will be stripped of his parliamentary pass after the Commons voted overwhelmingly to accept the findings of the privileges committee report into lockdown parties at Downing Street.

Johnson, the now former MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, accused the committee of bias and joked there was “always another innings”.

Only seven Conservative MPs voted against the report after a five-hour debate in Parliament, with 354 MPs across all parties in favour of the conclusion that Mr Johnson had deliberately misled the House.

The former prime minister quit as an MP after he learned of the recommendations of the cross-party group, which included a 90-day ban from the House of Commons for “repeated contempts” of Parliament.

Some 118 Tories voted to rubber stamp the report, including a number of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top team.

Cabinet members who voted to endorse the report included the Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, education secretary, Gillian Keegan, and Alex Chalk, who replaced Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary earlier this year.

Johnson has accused the committee of staging a “kangaroo court” and said his fate should be in the hands of the public, not MPs.

The report found Johnson committed a series of offences when he said Covid rules had been followed at No 10 at all times.

Mr Sunak did not attend the debate and has refused to say how he would have voted, suggesting he did not want to influence others.

Senior Conservative Tobias Ellwood, who voted for the report, said it was a “highly symbolic” day as Parliament sought to “bring to a conclusion a very difficult chapter in British politics”.

He said that because Mr Johnson had already “walked”, many MPs, including him, had not initially appreciated the wider public’s high expectations for Parliament to not just rubber stamp this report but thoroughly debate its findings, given it related to rules set by the government.

“This was the collective conscience of Parliament, if you like, being judged by the British people,” he said.

The Liberal Democrats accused Mr Sunak of “a cowardly cop-out”.

The party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “His failure to vote says all you need to know about this prime minister’s lack of leadership.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said Mr Sunak was “too weak to lead a party too divided to govern”.

The vote translates to Mr Johnson losing his right to a parliamentary pass, which gives access to certain parts of Parliament, as this was one of the report’s recommendations.

The Privileges Committee of MPs, made up of a Conservative majority, was asked to investigate whether Mr Johnson had misled MPs over what he knew about parties held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns.

It found Mr Johnson committed several “contempts” of Parliament by attacking the committee, increasing the severity of the recommended sanction.

The committee recommended a 90-day suspension for Mr Johnson as well as denying him the parliamentary pass, which he would normally be entitled to as a former MP.

‘DERANGED’: JOHNSON SLAMS PARTYGATE REPORT FINDING

The partygate report into the conduct of former British prime minister Boris Johnson has found he repeatedly deliberately misled the House of Commons, committing a serious contempt.

Boris Johnson would have faced a potential 90-day suspension from the House of Commons if he had not resigned.

The privileges committee published its long-awaited report on Thursday and found he deliberately misled the House, the Committee, breached confidence, undermined the democratic process of the House and was complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the Committee.

Witnesses told MPs investigating whether Johnson lied that Number 10 was an “oasis of normality” during the pandemic with parties and social drinks continuing as normal.

In its damning report, the privileges committee found birthday parties, leaving drinks and end of week socials all “continued as normal” and staff were told to watch out for cameras.

Senior MPs felt it was clear that lockdown rules were not being followed during the pandemic and “Wine Time Fridays” in the press office did not stop even when the Government imposed strict measures on gatherings.

“No10, despite setting the rules to the country, was slow to enforce any rules in the building,” the report states.

The senior MPs found five grounds on which Mr Johnson misled the Commons, including most centrally by claiming Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in No10.

They accused him of seeking to “re-write the meaning of the rules and guidance to fit his own evidence” and of “deliberately closing his mind” to facts about Covid rule breaches in Downing Street.

“We conclude that when he [Mr Johnson] told the House and this Committee that the Rules and Guidance were being complied with, his own knowledge was such that he deliberately misled the House and this Committee,” the 30,000-word long report said.

The committee said it would have recommended a suspension of 90 days if the former prime minister had not quit as a Tory MP last Friday and found the former leader repeatedly misled MPs.

It said that “if he had not resigned his seat, we would have recommended that he be suspended from the service of the House for 90 days for repeated contempts and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process”.

Britain's then prime minister Boris Johnson delivers his final speech outside 10 Downing Street in central London on September 6, 2022. Picture: AFP

Mr Johnson hit out at what he called a “deranged conclusion”, accusing the Tory-majority group of MPs he has repeatedly sought to disparage of lying.

He labelled the Privileges Committee’s report a “charade” and said its publication represented a “dreadful day for MPs and for democracy”.

In a 1,700 word statement, Mr Johnson said: “This report is a charade. I was wrong to believe in the Committee or its good faith. The terrible truth is that it is not I who has twisted the truth to suit my purposes. It is Harriet Harman and her Committee.

“This is a dreadful day for MPs and for democracy. This decision means that no MP is free from vendetta, or expulsion on trumped up charges by a tiny minority who want to see him or her gone from the Commons.”

“It is for the people of this country to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman,” he said.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was found to have mislead parliament in a report published by he Privileges Committee on June 15. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Johnson quit last week after reading the report’s findings, meaning he will escape the immediate prospect of a sanction.

Boris Johnson had compared Tory MPs who wanted him to resign as prime minister “with dignity” to the marketing efforts “of a Swiss euthanasia clinic”.

Guto Harri, Mr Johnson’s former No10 communications chief, said an earlier draft of the ex-premier’s Downing Street resignation speech was “even tougher” than the one he actually delivered.

Speaking on the final episode of the Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street podcast, released on Global Player, Mr Harri said: “And what was interesting was that an earlier draft of the speech was even tougher.

“He basically had a dig at those MPs who had been urging him to ‘go with dignity’, saying that they reminded him ‘of the marketing of a Swiss euthanasia clinic’. We all decided, thankfully, that it was a bit too graphic, even for those dramatic times.”

A spokesman for Mr Johnson has said previously that he had “no part in this podcast”.

Originally published as Most MPs accept Partygate report and strip Boris Johnson of parliamentary pass