Boris Johnson faces loss of Westminster pass as MPs back Partygate report Boris Johnson faces being blocked from getting a pass allowing him unlimited access to the House of Commons, after MPs backed the punishment for his five contempt of parliament offences. The former prime minister was censured in his absence, given that he formally quit as an MP last week, for misleading parliament over Partygate and his conduct towards the privileges committee. Though decisions about blocking ex-MPs from receiving a pass granting special access to the parliamentary estate are for the Commons authorities, the move was recommended by the Commons’ privileges committee and endorsed by MPs on Monday. Johnson’s allies boycotted a vote on the privileges committee’s report, in a move that was widely seen as a tactic to avoid showing how weak support for him in the Conservative party has become. Closing summary Here is a round-up of the main events from a busy evening in Westminster: The House of Commons has voted to accept the privileges committee report on the conduct of former prime minister Boris Johnson during Partygate. It was a resounding result, with 354 MPs voting to approve, while just seven voted against. Johnson’s allies boycotted a vote on the privileges committee’s report, in a move that was widely seen as a tactic to avoid showing how weak support for him in the Conservative parliamentary party has become. An overwhelming majority backed the privileges committee’s conclusion that Johnson committed five contempts of parliament, including misleading both the Commons and the cross-party group investigating him. Boris Johnson faces being blocked from getting a pass allowing him unlimited access to the House of Commons, after MPs backed the punishment for his five contempts of parliament. The former prime minister was censured in his absence, given that he formally quit as an MP last week, for misleading parliament over Partygate and his conduct towards the privileges committee. Chris Bryant, the Labour chair of the Commons standards committee (and chair of the privileges committee until he stood aside for this inquiry, because of his previous comments about Boris Johnson), said people made sacrifices during the pandemic because they felt we were all in this together. That is why they feel so strongly about this, he said. He defended the committee’s conclusion that Johnson would have deserved a 90-day suspension if he were still an MP. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was recently knighted in Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list, said the fixed-penalty notice Boris Johnson received for attending the birthday gathering was not a “conviction” or “admission of guilt”. The report “decides to impute a stain on his character”, Rees-Mogg continued. He added that the report “decides as if it were an Elon Musk particle to insert itself in the brain of Mr Johnson to work out what he must have thought in a particular moment”. Labour’s Karl Turner commended the privileges committee for compiling the report. He said that anybody who reads the report “would have to conclude the reality that Boris Johnson was a liar”. Turner said: “Very often you would be surprised that he could get away with the things he was saying but it’s proven now that he was dishonest.” Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has given a strong hint that the Met will take action against Tories involved in the lockdown party organised by Shaun Bailey’s mayoral campaign team. In an interview with the News Agents podcast, asked about the video of the event leaked to the Mirror at the weekend, Rowley said: “We’re not routinely opening every minor historic allegation. So, if you phoned up about your neighbour from three years ago, we’re not going to reopen that. But clearly cases that are particularly serious, particularly concerning, we will do.” Suella Braverman has called on police to increase the use of stop and search powers “to prevent violence and save more lives”. In a statement aimed at all 43 forces in England and Wales, the home secretary said officers who used the powers had her “full support”. Her comments are likely to alarm critics of stop and search who point out that the technique disproportionately targets black and minority ethnic communities. David Cameron has admitted failures in his government’s preparations for a pandemic but defended the austerity drive that he and his chancellor, George Osborne, imposed, saying “your health system is only as strong as your economy”. The former prime minister repeatedly told the Covid inquiry it was a mistake that “more time and more questions” were not focused on tackling what turned out to be a “highly infectious, asymptomatic” pandemic. Liz Truss has described the newspaper stunt in which her tenure as prime minister was measured against the shelf life of a lettuce as “puerile”. Speaking at a broadcasting conference in Dublin, Truss also complained that the media did not properly understand her economic ideas. She said too much political coverage was “froth”, while at the same time praising the overall irreverence of the UK. Downing Street has defended Rishi Sunak after a video emerged of the prime minister seemingly making a joke that mocked transgender people, saying the comments were simply aimed at a political opponent. The footage of Sunak addressing fellow Conservative MPs, leaked to PinkNews, shows him making fun of Ed Davey after the Liberal Democrat leader said it was possible for a woman to have a penis, which can happen under the government’s own gender recognition laws. Clean energy companies would be offered up to £500m a year to set up manufacturing in the UK, to build the wind turbines, solar panels and other infrastructure needed to reach net zero, under plans set out by Labour. But Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, on Monday also gave assurances to the oil and gas industry that production would continue in the North Sea “for decades to come”, to the consternation of green campaigners. Under plans for a “British jobs bonus”, Labour would allocate £500m a year for each of the first five years of government, to provide capital grants to companies in low-carbon industries, including wind and solar energy, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for tonight. Thanks for following along. The division list showed 118 Conservative MPs voted in favour of the report, while 225 MPs abstained. The Conservative MPs who opposed the privileges committee report were: Sir Bill Cash; Nick Fletcher; Adam Holloway; Karl McCartney; Joy Morrissey; and Heather Wheeler. The division list released immediately after the vote contained six names in the noes rather than seven announced in the chamber. There have been ongoing issues with names being recorded on the division lists, with other votes seeing the Commons authorities issuing updates later on. The ayes list released immediately after the vote contained 352 names rather than the 354 announced in the chamber, but again this could be updated later by the Commons authorities. Andrew Dudfield, the interim chief executive at Full Fact, has responded to tonight’s vote, saying MPs “agree that there should be consequences for misleading parliament”. “Being able to trust you’re being told the truth, as the committee noted, ‘goes to the very heart of our democracy’,” he added. But so far this year, only five of the 30 MPs Full Fact has asked to correct themselves have actually done so. “Parliament’s corrections process is broken. The public deserves better than a system that acts as if accuracy and honesty are optional.” “MPs must agree new rules to make it easy to correct mistakes officially on the record, and ensure there are consequences for those who do not.” Boris Johnson faces loss of Westminster pass as MPs back Partygate report Boris Johnson faces being blocked from getting a pass allowing him unlimited access to the House of Commons, after MPs backed the punishment for his five contempt of parliament offences. The former prime minister was censured in his absence, given that he formally quit as an MP last week, for misleading parliament over Partygate and his conduct towards the privileges committee. Though decisions about blocking ex-MPs from receiving a pass granting special access to the parliamentary estate are for the Commons authorities, the move was recommended by the Commons’ privileges committee and endorsed by MPs on Monday. Johnson’s allies boycotted a vote on the privileges committee’s report, in a move that was widely seen as a tactic to avoid showing how weak support for him in the Conservative party has become. MPs vote to approve Partygate report The House of Commons has voted to accept the privileges committee report on the conduct of former prime minister Boris Johnson during Partygate. It was a resounding result, with 354 MPs voting to approve, while just seven voted against. MPs to vote on Johnson Partygate report The debate has come to an end and MPs are now voting on whether or not to approve the privileges committee report. It wasn’t certain to have gone to a vote but the results will be due shortly. Stay tuned. Labour MP Jess Phillips says Boris Johnson is either lying or thick when it comes to claiming not to understand the rules. She says: The idea that Boris Johnson didn’t understand the regulations … I mean, it is a cracking defence on his part I have to say, because it basically means he is too stupid. He is either lying or he is thick. The Birmingham Yardley MP added that the committee report reassured her there was “a lock on the system”, also describing it as “a valve to release the pressure”. She told MPs: What I have seen for the past five years of people lying and deceiving, specifically Boris Johnson lying and deceiving, I felt like oh gosh, it is OK, the system is bigger than this demagogue, it is bigger than this man who thinks he is bigger than the world. A Conservative MP claimed he was “so over Boris” as MPs debated the report setting out how the ex-PM misled parliament. Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely told the Commons he would vote for the report, but also said: “I am so over Boris, and I am pretty over lockdown as well. I think sometimes, and really the point I want to make tonight is that we are in danger of making Westminster look small and petty.” While he described politicians telling the truth as “a keystone to this place”, he added: The scandal of lockdown, or Covid and how we dealt with it, is not only whether there were ‘wine Fridays’ and cake in Downing Street, and people in protest carrying about pints of milk, but actually whether lockdown worked, the cost of lockdown in terms of lives, in terms of learning, in terms of sanity, in terms of money, and in terms of truth. The Conservative MP Nick Fletcher has told MPs he will vote against the motion, urging members to remember Johnson is “human” and that during Covid, he “nearly died”. The MP for Don Valley told the Commons: “We must also remember he is a human, too. In addition to running the country, he dealt with the highs and lows that this life brings. During Covid, he nearly died. He got married. He lost his mum and had a child.” Meanwhile, Conservative MP for Guildford Angela Richardson said: “I deplore the attacks on members of the privileges committee. Whether they come from external commentators or within this House. “The work of the committee is thankless, there is no need to make it potentially dangerous, too. The additional security that was needed is deeply shameful.” She told MPs that Harriet Harman, the Labour chair of the committee, is “an exceptional parliamentarian”. An ally of Boris Johnson said he would abstain from a potential vote on the privileges committee report because the high number of MPs staying away has “made a bit of a farce of it”. Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Bassetlaw MP who had previously said he would vote against it, told Channel 4 News: “I’m not going to be voting one way or the other. I’m against the report and its recommendations. “It’s not really right. The number of people that are in here, it’s kind of made a bit of a farce of it, I think to be honest. “If we had a full house here and everybody was here to vote, I think you’d get a more realistic picture, but you’re not going to get that today. So really, I think I wouldn’t want to legitimise that vote today.” He denied that support for Mr Johnson was so low that the former prime minister’s allies were abstaining to spare him embarrassment. “I think if you actually did have a vote and I think if people were actually on the estate, I think the numbers would actually be quite decent and quite split.” MPs should “back a properly constituted committee” by voting in favour of the report, the former Tory cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom has said. She told Channel 4 News: “In my view, as a former leader of the Commons but also a real believer in the importance of parliamentary sovereignty, we have to back a properly constituted committee. “And it’s not right to simply say: ‘Well, I don’t like its findings so I’m just going to bring into question its legitimacy’.” She also said she hoped enough MPs would support it so it would not need to come to a vote. “I’m hopeful that this will go through on the nod rather than having a division. I want all members to accept the validity of that committee’s findings.” Tory MP Sir Bill Cash accuses the privileges committee of lowering the bar for reprimanding ministers. He says Johnson had to be proven to have been “knowingly misleading” the parliament, not just misleading it. Cash also says lawyers ought to be allowed to represent MPs accused of wrongdoing by fellow MPs. Actor Sir Ian McKellen was present in the Commons for the debate on the Privileges Committee report. McKellen watched the proceedings from the MPs’ guests gallery, occasionally using a pair of opera glasses. However, he declined to comment on leaving the house. Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine says that it is a time to “recognise the significance of supporting this report”. She says Johnson showed contempt for the public and undermined trust. “Our constituents will be looking to us as to how we have stood up for them and protested the way they were let down by the incumbent of No 10,” she says. The honour of this house and this democracy is at stake and we cannot risk it. Labour’s Karl Turner commends the privileges committee for the job done compiling the report. He says that anybody who reads the report “would have to conclude the reality that Boris Johnson was a liar”. Turner says: Very often you would be surprised that he could get away with the things he was saying but it’s proven now that he was dishonest. He goes on to question why Johnson received taxpayers’ money to fund his legal aid. The former prime minister should “pay up himself”, he says. Turner also raises the issue of honours being handed to “people who were boozing it up in central Tory office”. He adds that Rishi Sunak should be “ashamed of himself” for not attending the debate. Rees-Mogg: Fixed-penalty notice was not an "admission of guilt" Here comes Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg (Con), who was recently knighted in Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list. He says the fixed-penalty notice Boris Johnson received for attending the birthday gathering was not a “conviction” or “admission of guilt”. The report “decides to impute a stain on his character”, Rees-Mogg continues. He adds that the report “decides as if it were an Elon Musk particle to insert itself in the brain of Mr Johnson to work out what he must have thought in a particular moment”. He infers that the committee “wanted to come to a particular conclusion” about the former prime minister. He says: They go from the vindictive to the ridiculous in not allowing him a parliamentary pass. Rees-Mogg goes on to question the 90-day sanction that Johnson would have received had he not resigned his seat last week. He compares the privileges committee to “communist China”…