Tory party runs out of time for Johnson

Former PM resigns his seat after a cross-party investigation concludes he lied to parliament

- Toby Helm and Michael Savage

Boris Johnson was unaware at the time. But the most flamboyant, divisive, controversial Tory politician of recent decades finally ran out of political road in a quiet room in the House of Commons on Tuesday 6 June.

It was then, at 10am, that the seven MPs - four of them Conservatives who have been conducting an inquiry into whether he misled parliament over Partygate, met in secret in committee room 20, and in effect sealed his fate. Chaired by Labour's Harriet Harman, the privileges committee was unanimous across party lines.

After months of exhaustive inquiries and evidence sessions looking into whether the prime minister lied about Covid rule-breaking parties in No 10, they had concluded that the former prime minister had indeed misled the Commons about what had gone on. Not inadvertently or casually - but either recklessly or deliberately and on more than one occasion.

For any MP, such a verdict would be difficult to survive. But for a former prime minister, it was of another order of magnitude altogether.

The committee resolved to recommend Johnson's suspension from parliament for more than 10 days a level of punishment at the higher end of expectations, and one severe enough to trigger a potential byelection in his seat.

Aware of the implications of their conclusion, the MPs were ready at last. They would despatch a draft copy of their findings to Johnson, and give him two weeks to respond. Because he was abroad, the document was sent to his lawyers who relayed it to their client.