Boris '90-day ban’ for misleading Commons

Sanction he would have faced as report found he tried to re-write the rules

- Nicholas Cecil and Rachael Burford

BORIS Johnson would have faced suspension from the Commons for an almost unprecedented 90 days for repeated contempts of Parliament over the “partygate” scandal, according to a damning report published today.

The privileges committee, which has a Tory majority, also recommended the former PM be denied an ex-MP’s pass to allow him access to Parliament in future.

In their withering findings, 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.

As Westminster was rocked by the ferocity of the committee’s verdict, Mr Johnson slammed its “deranged conclusion”, claiming its 14-month investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”. He had already branded the committee a “kangaroo court” as he announced his bombshell resignation from Parliament on Friday, formally quitting as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip on Monday.