'I do not think there is going to be a vote...people just want to move on'

BORIS Johnson has taken a swipe at next week's vote on Partygate, urging his allies to ignore the "farce" and to "move on"

- Martyn Brown

 

The ex-Prime Minister has stood down his supporters, and and told them not to oppose the "deranged" Commons sanction that he faces after being hounded from Parliament.

MPs had been set for a fiery debate Committee's over the Privileges conclusion that Mr Johnson had repeatedly lied to the House over claims of Covid rulebreaking in Downing Street.

His backers were preparing to vote against the committee's report with its recommendation to suspend him for 90 days.

But Mr Johnson, who has resigned his Uxbridge seat, is understood to consider the situation to be a farce and has told them to stand down - meaning the report is almost certain to pass without a formal vote on Monday.

It means that PM Rishi Sunak would be spared an awkward ballot that might further inflame the bitter Tory civil war over the treatment of his predecessor.

Mr Sunak has been agonising about his response to the committee's findings which recommended that Mr Johnson should have faced the mammoth suspension had he not already resigned in advance of its judgment. It also proposed that he is banned from holding a Commons pass an honour an Commons pass extended to former MPs.

Tory MP Sir James Duddridge, a friend of Mr Johnson, said yesterday: "I don't think there is going to be a vote. I think people just want to move on." If the report is not opposed then it could just be nodded through the Commons.