Sunak gives Tories a free vote on Johnson’s future

The former PM faces a marathon hearing in which he must convince seven MPs that he was not in contempt of the Commons.

Boris Johnson after the publiocation of the report that detailed the lockdown parties during his tenure at Downing Street. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will give Conservative MPs a free vote on Boris Johnson’s future if the privileges committee finds that he deliberately misled parliament about Downing Street pandemic parties.

Almost a year after the investigation began, Mr Johnson faces a marathon televised hearing on Wednesday in which he must convince seven MPs that he was not in contempt of the House of Commons when he denied claims about lockdown rulebreaking.

If the committee finds against Mr Johnson, he may be suspended from the Commons. A suspension of more than 10 days would automatically trigger a recall petition, allowing Mr Johnson’s constituents to force a by-election. The privileges committee’s verdict would have to be approved by a vote of MPs, and Mr Johnson’s allies are already preparing to use the moment to proclaim his innocence.

Mr Sunak is understood to have decided that he will not whip MPs to protect his predecessor, allowing them instead to make their own decisions.

He is thought to be wary of repeating JMr ohnson’s own approach in 2021, when he tried to overturn a 30-day suspension imposed on Owen Paterson, a former cabinet minister. “There is no way that we are going to get stuck in the hell that is Owen Paterson again,” a government source said.

Mr Johnson is submitting his written statement rebutting the criticisms, to be published early next week. It is expected to be a legal submission highlighting unpublished WhatsApp messages as well as other evidence submitted to the inquiry that Mr Johnson believes backs his case that he was not informed about any lockdown-breaking events at 10 Downing Street.

He will lean heavily on the evidence when he makes his case at the committee on Wednesday, and has spent much of the last month locked in preparations for the hearing with his lawyers. His allies have called the committee a “stitch up” and an “organised lynching”. A spokesman for Mr Johnson said he was confident that the privileges committee would vindicate his position.

Johnson repeatedly denied in the Commons that he or his staff had breached his own Covid lockdown laws by holding boozy gatherings in Downing Street.

But police issued fines to dozens of aides after a criminal probe, and Mr Johnson became the first serving British prime minister found to have broken the law, over one of the gatherings.

Mr Johnson resigned as prime minister in July 2022 after being dogged for months by the accusations of lockdown breaches and other scandals.

Mr Sunak said in San Diego last week that he saw the investigation as “a matter for parliament and the house”, adding that is was “not right for the government to get involved”. The decision means the Tory party may publicly split over Johnson’s future.

THE TIMES