Rishi Sunak ‘will NOT order Conservative MPs to back Boris Johnson on Partygate’
Tension is rising today ahead of Boris Johnson’s Partygate showdown with MPs as a poll suggested campaigners believe the process is unfair.
Johnson is preparing to give hours of evidence to the all-party Privileges Committee tomorrow as it considers whether he misled the House of Commons about the blockade-breaking events on Downing Street.
He has submitted a 50-page dossier setting out his case, designed to insist that his aides assured him that the rules had not been broken.
Allies have been condemning the process as a “kangaroo court”, arguing that Labor Chairwoman Harriet Harman has already made her views clear and that not all evidence is made public.
A poll of activists by the grassroots website ConservativeHome found widespread skepticism about the process, with 59 percent saying it is unfair.
However, Rishi Sunak made it clear this morning that he will not order the Conservatives to line up behind Johnson if the committee finds out he misled the House.
Tension is rising today ahead of Boris Johnson’s (pictured jogging this morning) Partygate showdown with MPs, as the ex-PM’s defense bomb is ready to be dropped.
A poll of activists by the grassroots website ConservativeHome found widespread skepticism about the process, with 59 percent saying it is unfair.
Allies have been condemning the process as a “kangaroo court”, arguing that Labor chairwoman Harriet Harman (pictured) has already made her views clear and not all the evidence is being made public.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Sunak indicated that if Johnson’s case reaches the House of Commons, it will follow the convention that it is a free vote.
‘These are issues for Parliament and the House and MPs as individuals, rather than the government. So that’s the general process that we will follow,’ he said.
Asked if he agreed with the description of the investigation as a witch hunt, Sunak said: “That is ultimately something for Boris Johnson and he will have to go through the committee process and that is a matter for the Parliament”. That’s not what I’m focused on.
Johnson’s team says the Commons Privileges Committee, which has a Conservative majority of four members, has received “thousands of documents” supporting its claim that it did not deliberately mislead Parliament.
Dozens of witnesses are said to have told the committee they also believed the high-profile gatherings were within the rules.
MPs have already published a 23-page summary of the issues they want to raise with Johnson, including his communications with aides and why he made statements in Parliament insisting there were no rule-breakings at Downing Street.
The Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak were eventually fined for a single lockdown violation, in connection with a birthday party for the then Prime Minister, after investigations by civil servant Sue Gray and Scotland Yard. However, Johnson was not fined for any of the other events.
Ms Gray has since been hired as Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff, though she is awaiting clearance from the appointment watchdog before accepting.
The Committee on Privileges is conducting an unprecedented inquiry into whether Johnson misled Parliament when he told MPs that “all instructions were followed” at number 10.
You have suggested that you could be punished if you did it “recklessly”, rather than the normal threshold of deliberately.
The committee could potentially recommend a lengthy suspension that could trigger a by-election in its Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Allies of the former prime minister fear the inquiry, led by former Labor vice-president Harriet Harman, has turned into a “witch hunt”.
In an interim report this month, the committee said it should have been “obvious” to it at the time that lockdown rules were not being observed.
Rishi Sunak made it clear this morning that he will not order the Conservatives to line up behind Johnson if the committee finds out he misled the House.
He posted messages from number 10 aides, including one suggesting it was difficult to explain how a gathering in the Cabinet Room to mark Johnson’s birthday was within the rules.
And Number 10 granted the investigation access to a vast cache of internal documents.
But Johnson’s team suggests that many posts that cast him in a more favorable light have been suppressed.
ConservativeHome regularly polls a panel of party members and while the results are not entirely scientific, they are closely watched in Westminster.
The latest poll found that activists agree Johnson violated stay-at-home rules 49% to 38%.
Some 30 percent said he deliberately misled Commons about Partygate, but 59 percent insisted he did not.
Some 59 percent said the process is unfair, compared with 30 percent who thought otherwise.
However, only a quarter suggested that Johnson should return as leader and prime minister before the next election, while 66 percent said he should not.