Boris Johnson loses keys to House of Commons

British MPs have voted overwhelmingly to remove ex-prime minister Boris Johnson’s parliamentary pass.

British MPs overwhelmingly approved of a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to parliament about Covid lockdown-breaking parties. Picture: AFP

British MPs have voted overwhelmingly to remove ex-prime minister Boris Johnson’s parliamentary pass as they approved a damning report that found he lied to parliament about Covid lockdown-breaking parties.

After hours of debate, held on Mr Johnson’s 59th birthday, MPs voted by 354 to seven in favour of the privileges committee’s findings, with many Conservatives ­ abstaining.

MPs and former prime minister Theresa May lined up to urge colleagues to censure Mr Johnson, who quit parliament earlier this month when he was informed of the findings.

Ms May said the vote would be “a small but important step in ­restoring people’s trust” in parliament.

She urged her party to “show that we are prepared to act when one of our own, however senior, is found wanting”, in an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his decision to abstain.

“If they [the public] see members of this House trying to save the careers of friends who have been clearly found by due process to have been guilty of wrongdoing … respect for us is eroded,” she said.

“Without that trust and respect, their faith in our very parliamentary democracy is damaged.”

Mr Johnson and his dwindling supporters have portrayed the ­report by the committee as a “witch-hunt”.

Boris Johnson on his morning run. Picture: Getty Images

Former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the committee had made a “deliberate attempt to take the most unfavourable interpretation … of Mr Johnson’s activities”.

But Mr Sunak, who has promised to restore integrity to government, said its bipartisan members had “done their work thoroughly”.

However, he declined to say how MPs should decide before the report was put to a vote.

“This is a matter for the House rather than the government. That’s an important distinction and that is why I wouldn’t want to influence anyone in advance of that vote,” he told ITV.

Opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, however, tried to keep pressure on Mr Sunak to avoid taking sides between the ­report’s backers and Mr Johnson’s vocal supporters in the Conservative party at large.

“He should show leadership. Come along! Get in the (voting) lobby and show us where he stands on this,” he said on ITV, accusing Mr Johnson of “miserable misbehaviour”.

In a 106-page report last week, the privileges committee found Mr Johnson guilty of “repeated contempts (of parliament) and … seeking to undermine the parliamentary process”. There was “no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House”, it said.

Even as Mr Sunak looks to draw a line under the “Partygate” scandal, another video emerged on Sunday of Tory officials partying in December 2020 during one lockdown.

Government minister Michael Gove apologised for the Covid rule breach, at a time when the public was banned from socialising or meeting loved ones, even if they lay dying in hospitals or care homes.

He told the BBC the footage was “terrible” and “indefensible”.

London’s Metropolitan Police force confirmed it was looking into the footage from a 2020 Christmas gathering at Conservative headquarters.

Two of those at the party were recognised in Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list, and faced calls to withdraw their names.

By pre-emptively resigning, Mr Johnson thwarted the committee’s recommendation to suspend him as an MP for 90 days, which could have led to him facing a daunting re-election battle.

Instead, the committee could only recommend that his parliamentary pass be withdrawn, denying him one privilege normally offered to ex-members.

The under-fire Mr Sunak is now facing four potential by-elections – three linked to fallout from Mr Johnson’s honours list.

These promise to be punishing ordeals for the prime Minister and his party, with the country still in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis.

AFP