Boris Johnson made a desperate last-ditch bid to derail the privileges committee just hours before the release of its damning report – expected to find that he deliberately lied to parliament about Partygate.
The former PM demanded that Sir Bernard Jenkin “explain his actions and resign” from the committee following a report claiming the senior Tory MP attended a drinks reception in December 2020.
Mr Johnson’s frantic last stand came as he prepared to face judgement day on Partygate, with senior Tories predicting that the cross-party committee’s report will “finish his career”.
Rishi Sunak’s government was also warned against any attempt to “water down” a Common vote on the report’s verdict on Mr Johnson – however scathing – with one senior Tory telling The Independent: “Let’s put the bloody thing through parliament.”
Another day of high drama at Westminster saw Mr Sunak fire back at Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries and her failure to formally resign – with No 10 insisting her constituents deserve “proper representation”.
But in a move effectively holding the government to ransom, Ms Dorries warned Mr Sunak she will not formally quit until the government hands over WhatsApps and other documents surrounding the decision to deny her a peerage.
Claims that Sir Bernard went to a drinks party for his wife hosted by Commons deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing on 8 December 2020, while London was in Tier 2 measures restricting indoor mixing, were leaked to the pro-Boris website Guido Fawkes.
Mr Johnson said: “If this is true it is outrageous and a total contempt of parliament. [Sir Bernard] has no choice but to explain his actions to his own committee, for his colleagues to investigate and then to resign.”
The ex-PM also revealed that the committee had found him guilty of misleading parliament and would have punished him had he not quit, saying: “Bernard Jenkin has just voted to expel me from parliament.”
A source close to the privileges committee told The Independent that claims of hypocrisy were “desperate stuff” from the Boris camp, noting that MPs were ruling on Mr Johnson’s claims in the Commons rather than Covid-era gatherings themselves.
Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper said called it a “typical distraction tactic” from Boris Johnson which “doesn’t change the fact he broke the law and lied about it”, adding that the Tories appeared to be “full-blown civil war”.
The group of seven MPs’ long-awaited report will be published on Thursday, and is expected to find that he deliberately misled parliament about his knowledge of lockdown gatherings at No 10.
Said to be an “open and shut case”, the committee has reportedly decided that Mr Johnson’s officials did not advise him that guidelines had been followed before he spoke in the Commons – despite the former PM’s claims to the contrary.
Mr Johnson will be found to have committed “multiple” contempts of parliament, according to the Financial Times – including the ex-PM’s decision to reveal some of the committee’s conclusions in his resignation last Friday.
Mr Johnson’s decision to quit his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat has removed any threat of suspension. But the committee will reportedly make clear that he would have been suspended for 20 days – enough to have sparked a by-election. It could also recommend that he be stripped of the parliamentary pass offered to former MPs.
The ex-PM’s allies have claimed that he could still try to stand in the Oxfordshire seat of Henley at the next election, or elsewhere in the country, but Sunak allies said he had no chance of being selected by Tory officials.
“This will finish his political career,” said one former Tory minister on the Partygate report. “He won’t get anywhere [with another seat], so it doesn’t need the prime minister to get involved.”
MPs have raised concerns about reports that the Sunak government is looking at ways to avoid a meaningful vote on the Partygate report by making sure a motion would merely “note” the findings, rather than accept them in full.
Alistair Graham, former chair of the committee on standards in public life, told The Independent that it would be “quite wrong” for the government to “water down” a vote on Mr Johnson expected on Monday.
“You can’t a more serious offence that deliberately misleading the Commons, if that’s what they find he has done,” he said. “It would undermine the work of the committee if they do not get an approval by the Commons of their findings. There has to be a vote.”
One senior Tory MP warned the party whips not to “mess around” like the Johnson government tried to do with the punishment handed to Owen Paterson over a breach of lobbying rules. “There needs to be a substantive vote,” the ex-Tory minister said. “Let’s put the bloody thing through parliament.”
Despite fears of a cop-out, Tory whips reportedly reassured senior MPs on the party’s 1922 Committee on Wednesday: “There will be a vote.”
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak hit back at Ms Dorries after it emerged that she was delaying her resignation. The PM’s official spokesperson said the current limbo was “obviously unusual”. He added: “The prime minister believes the people of Mid-Bedfordshire need proper representation in this House.”
Ms Dorries said she wanted “copies of WhatsApps, text messages, all emails and minutes of meetings both formal and informal with names of senior figures unredacted” about her thwarted peerage before she formally steps down.
Sir Bernard and Dame Eleanor have been contacted for comment on the claims about a drinks reception. The deputy speaker told Guido Fawkes she made efforts to make sure the event stayed within the rules. “I was so strict with my 2 metre ruler and told everyone we will adhere to those rules and be very careful.”
