PM faces summer of Tory discontent over Partygate amid threat of move to oust him

Boris Johnson is facing a summer of discontent with Partygate hanging over him into the autumn and potentially moves by disgruntled Tories to remove him from office.

The Prime Minister bowed to a revolt in the Commons yesterday and dropped his attempt to delay yet another investigation into the lockdown lawbreaking crisis.

The Committee of Privileges will consider whether the Prime Minister knowingly misled the House over lockdown-busting gatherings.

If it finds him in contempt of Parliament, it could recommend that he is forced to apologise, suspended from the Commons, or even expelled.

No10 was forced to climb down after around half a dozen ministerial aides indicated they were prepared to resign to support the Labour plan for a fresh inquiry.

The report is not due to report back until a sperate police probe in completed, most likely in the autumn. 

But there are fears bombshell photographs of the PM attending parties in Downing Street – including with drinks in his hand – could be made public. 

Mr Johnson, who is 4,000 miles from Westminster on a two-day visit to India, repeated his pleas for critics to move on and let him deal with issues he says are more important to the British public. 

They include the cost-of-living crisis, with inflation soaring and bills rising. 

But Tory critic Mark Harper last night warned he faces efforts to remove him before Parliament rises in July. 

It came after Steve Baker, who earlier this week backed the PM to continue, told him: ‘The gig is up.’ And, speaking later to MailOnline, Mr Baker said it was up to Cabinet ministers to tell the PM ‘it’s over’.

However, Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns attacked Tory critics of the PM, telling the BBC: ‘If he stepped off Westminster Bridge and walked down (the surface of) the River Thames, they would say he couldn’t swim.’

Tobias Ellwood said the onus is on Tory MPs to force a change in leadership.

Speaking on Sky News, the Conservative MP and long-term critic of the PM, said: ‘There’s a recognition that every MP now realises it’s up to us to take ownership of this, because, I’m afraid, the absence of discipline, of focus and leadership in Number 10 during that lockdown period has led to a huge breach of trust with the British people.

‘It’s causing such long-term damage to the party’s brand and that’s proving difficult to repair.

‘Can it be repaired in time for the next general election?

‘So it’s beholden upon all Conservative MPs then to take matters into their own hands, and I think, as I say, I think this is where things will go, particularly as we have more bad news to follow.’

However, Mr Burns said today there is ‘no question’ of Boris Johnson standing down over the partygate row.

Burns, a long-time ally of the PM, told Sky News Mr Johnson was confident that he would be cleared once the full facts were made public.

‘He remains confident that when people can see the full context of what happened it will be clear that he was straightforward, he said to the House in good faith that he believed the rules were followed,’ he said.

‘He is looking forward to this ending. He is looking forward to drawing this to a conclusion, for it to be examined fully so that we can move on to the things people are genuinely concerned about.’ 

Any sanction imposed by the Privileges Committee would still need to be approved by MPs.

The committee, which has existed in some form since the 17th century, will be able to compel the release of documents, such as photographs of the Downing Street parties. 

A dossier of more than 300 images have been handed to Scotland Yard by senior civil servant Sue Gray, who led a Cabinet Office probe into the matter. They include some taken by the official No 10 photographer.

So far, no pictures have been made public of any of the 12 events being investigated by the police, which include a ‘bring-your-own-booze’ garden party, a gathering in the Cabinet Office to mark Mr Johnson’s 56th birthday, and a series of leaving dos.

The privileges committee is a cross-party group of seven MPs with a Tory majority. Its chairman is Labour’s Chris Bryant – but he has recused himself from the investigation into Mr Johnson because of critical remarks he has made about him.

The most recent case considered by the committee related to Mr Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings in 2018.

He was found to be in contempt of Parliament after he refused to appear before a select committee investigating fake news.

The most recent investigation into an MP was into Tory Justin Tomlinson in 2016. He was suspended for two days for leaking a select committee report.

This comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a major defeat in the Commons yesterday after his whips admitted they could not guarantee him a win to see off an opposition attempt to extend the Partygate investigation. 

Government ministers yesterday morning insisted the party would vote against an investigation before the admission of defeat. 

Despite the defeat, Johnson last night warned that Partygate investigations cannot go ‘on and on and on’ after a bid to block a new inquiry into the affair backfired.

Downing Street was yesterday forced to abandon efforts to halt a new probe by a Commons committee just minutes before a debate on the issue.

No 10 dropped plans to table a ‘wrecking amendment’ after Tory whips warned that dozens of MPs were not willing to support it. One source said up to half a dozen ministerial aides had threatened to resign if they were ordered to vote for the Government’s amendment.

Mr Johnson yesterday insisted he had ‘nothing to hide’, but warned the endless investigations could ‘crowd out’ the public’s priorities.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to India, which was overshadowed by the row, he said: ‘What I don’t want is for this thing to just go on and on and on.

‘We’ve had one inquiry, we’ve had a police inquiry, I think there’s got to be a way of drawing a line under it.’ Senior Tories believe Labour is deliberately dragging out the affair in a bid to maximise political damage ahead of next month’s local elections, in the hope of wrecking the PM’s agenda and forcing him from No 10.

Hinting at his frustration, Mr Johnson said: ‘The issue before us today is how much of my time and my energy can I expend on apologising?

‘I am extremely contrite for my mistakes, and I’ve said that, and I repeat it. The reality is I also have to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people and I have to take our country forward.’

The Prime Minister faces a fresh inquiry into whether he deliberately misled MPs when he denied knowledge of rule-breaking – an offence that could see him suspended from the Commons.

The inquiry by an obscure committee of MPs has the power to demand photos and other evidence of alleged wrongdoing, and is likely to take months, frustrating efforts by the PM to move on to other issues, such as tackling the cost of living.

In other developments on a chaotic day at Westminster:

• Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker called on Mr Johnson to quit, saying it was time for him to realise ‘the gig’s up’;
• Sir Keir Starmer was forced to issue a humiliating apology to MPs after wrongly claiming the Prime Minister had criticised the BBC’s coverage of the Ukraine war;
• Rishi Sunak, who has also been fined £50 for attending an illegal gathering in No 10, said he was ‘sincerely sorry for the hurt and the anger’ caused;
• The Metropolitan Police said they would not release further details of Partygate fines before the local elections;
• Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle ignored Tory protests and allowed the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford to brand the PM a ‘liar’ – an accusation normally banned in Parliament.

Yesterday’s row was sparked by a Labour bid to force an inquiry by the Commons privileges committee into whether Mr Johnson knowingly misled MPs over lockdown parties in No 10 – something he denies. On Wednesday night, the Government unveiled a ‘wrecking amendment’ which would have delayed the vote for months.

Tory MPs were put on a three-line whip to support the amendment, and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was sent out on to the airwaves yesterday morning to defend it. But despite having a Commons majority of almost 80, Tory whips were not confident they could persuade enough MPs to block the inquiry. Labour warned it would use local election literature to ‘name and shame’ any MP who voted against the inquiry.

Tory MP Felicity Buchan condemned Labour’s ‘threatening, bullying, toxic’ approach, but the tactic was effective, with dozens of Tory MPs telling party whips they would abstain, prompting the Government to drop its amendment.

The U-turn revived criticism of the PM’s Downing Street operation, with one senior Tory describing it as ‘the worst of all worlds’.

But Mr Johnson, who was more than 4,000 miles away on a pre-planned trip to India, defended the move, saying: ‘People were saying it looks like we are trying to stop stuff. I didn’t want that.

‘I didn’t want people to be able to say that. I don’t want this thing to endlessly go on. But I have absolutely nothing to hide. If that is what the Opposition want to talk about, that is fine.’

Labour’s motion was eventually passed without a vote. But the inquiry will not begin work until the Met Police have finished their investigations into a dozen alleged parties, and Whitehall ethics chief Sue Gray has published her report on the affair.

Mr Johnson’s fate will then be placed in the hands of the powerful, but little known, Commons privileges committee. The committee’s Labour chairman Chris Bryant has agreed to stand aside from the inquiry after savaging the PM’s conduct, leaving the committee with a four-two Tory majority.

Mr Baker said the ‘barbaric’ nature of the lockdown laws imposed on the country meant there could be no excuse for breaches by those who set them.

‘There should have been no cake in No 10 and no booze in No 10,’ he said. ‘These things should not have happened.’

William Wragg, a long-time critic of Mr Johnson, said he was doing a ‘good job’ on Ukraine, but added: ‘Much as I may try, I cannot reconcile myself to the PM’s continued leadership of our party and country.’

In a scathing speech, he said it was ‘utterly depressing to be asked to defend the indefensible. Each time, part of us withers’.

Totnes MP Anthony Mangnall, who has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM, said: ‘I do forgive the Prime Minister for making those mistakes, but I do not forgive him for misleading the House.’

But environment minister Zac Goldsmith launched a stinging attack on Mr Johnson’s critics, saying many of them were ‘annoyed they’re not PM, annoyed they’re not ministers, or who simply know that bashing Boris turns them instantly into ‘top Tories’.’

The row overshadowed Mr Johnson’s trip to India, where he appeared irritated by a string of media questions.

During a fractious interview with Sky News, he repeatedly pointed to his watch and urged the channel’s political editor Beth Rigby to focus on the ‘substance’ of the visit to one of Britain’s biggest allies.

Source: dailymail