Boris Johnson denied special access to parliament as MPs endorse report which said he lied
Boris Johnson has been stripped of special access to parliament after MPs endorsed the privileges committee’s report that he lied about parties in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic.
MPs voted by 354 to seven to back the report’s findings.
A total of 118 Conservatives voted for the report, while 225 abstained.
A debate was held in the Commons on Monday afternoon asking MPs to consider the report, which found the former prime minister knowingly misled parliament multiple times with his statements about gatherings in Number 10 during lockdown.
Earlier in the day, there had been uncertainty over whether there would be a vote on the report – but after shouts of “no” were heard in the Chamber, a division was held and a formal vote took place.
A total of eight cabinet ministers backed the privileges committee report, including Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Chief Whip Simon Hart and Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt.
They will be sitting down with their colleagues who did not vote – including Rishi Sunak – for the weekly cabinet meeting in Downing Street on Tuesday morning.
The seven Conservative MPs who voted against the report were Bill Cash, Nick Fletcher, Adam Holloway, Karl McCartney, Joy Morrissey, Desmond Swayne and Heather Wheeler.
Rishi Sunak ‘too weak to turn up’ to vote – politics latest
In its damning report, the committee recommended that Mr Johnson should have served a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not resigned as an MP just days earlier
It also said he should have his right to access parliament as a former MP revoked – a sanction that attracted strong criticism from his supporters.
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‘Who are you?’ Seven MPs reject report
During the debate, a number of Tory MPs rose to their feet to criticise Mr Johnson – including his predecessor Theresa May, who praised the committee for its “rigorous” report.
“It is not easy to sit in judgment on friends and colleagues,” she said, “but friendship, working together, should not get in the way of doing what is right.
“I commend the members of the privileges committee for their painstaking work, and for their dignity in the face of slurs on their integrity. To all the members of the committee, this House should… say thank you for your service.”
Harriet Harman – the Labour chair of the committee whom Mr Johnson accused of conducting a “kangaroo court” – thanked the Conservative members who took part in the probe for their “outstanding dedication and commitment”.
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‘I think that’s a mic-drop Jacob Rees-Mogg’
“They have had to withstand a campaign of threats, intimidation, and harassment designed to challenge the legitimacy of the inquiry, to drive them off the committee and thereby frustrate the intention of the House that this inquiry should be carried out,” she said.
Ms Harman was challenged by Johnson supporter Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who questioned whether she was appropriate to lead the inquiry given her previous tweets that had been critical of the former prime minister.
But Ms Harman confirmed that she had checked with the government that it was happy for her to chair the committee and had in fact offered to step aside.
“I actually said I am more than happy to step aside because perception matters and I don’t want to do this if the government doesn’t have confidence in me, because I need the whole House of have confidence in the work that the committee has mandated,” she said.
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‘We are all responsible for our actions’
“I was assured that I should continue the work that the House had mandated with the appointment that the House had put me into and so I did just that.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Sir Jacob, who received a knighthood in Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list, said it was “ridiculous” to remove Mr Johnson’s right to access parliament as former MP.
He also denounced the committee’s proposed sanction of a 90-day suspension from parliament as “vindictive”.
He told MPs that it was “absolutely legitimate to criticise the conduct of a committee, to criticise the members of a committee”, adding: “That is politics.”
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Nick Fletcher, the Tory MP for Don Valley, also confirmed he would not vote for the report on the grounds that the country “needs to move on”.
The debate and vote comes after the committee’s damning verdict issued last week, found Mr Johnson guilty of impugning the committee and being complicit in a “campaign of intimidation” against its members.
The former prime minister immediately hit back at what he called a “deranged conclusion” and branded the committee’s report a “charade”, adding its investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.
Rishi Sunak – who was not present for the debate or vote – was accused of a “cowardly cop-out” by the Liberal Democrats.
Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said his failure to vote “says all you need to know about this prime minister’s lack of leadership”.
“Sunak promised integrity yet when push came to shove, he was too weak to even turn up.”
World
Egypt: Two Britons believed to be among 16 missing as tourist boat sinks after being ‘hit by large wave’
Two Britons are believed to be among more than a dozen people missing after a boat sank in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.
The yacht, called Sea Story, had 44 people on board, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 13 crew.
Authorities are searching for 16 people, including 12 foreign nationals and four Egyptians, the governor of the Red Sea region said, adding that 28 other people had been rescued.
Preliminary reports suggested a sudden large wave struck the vessel, capsizing it within about five minutes, governor Amr Hanafi said.
“Some passengers were in their cabins, which is why they were unable to escape,” he added in a statement.
Survivors rescued from the Sea Story in Marsa Alam. Pic: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Passengers rescued from sunken tourist boat
The people who were rescued only suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scrapes with none needing hospital treatment.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office spokesperson said: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The foreign nationals aboard the 34-metre-long vessel, owned by an Egyptian national, included Americans, Belgians, British, Chinese, Finns, Germans, Irish, Poles, Slovakians, Spanish, and Swiss.
Sea Story had no technical problems, obtained all required permits before the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials.
The four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht was part of a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam following warnings about rough weather.
Officials said a distress call was received at 5.30am local time on Monday.
The boat had left Port Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday and was scheduled to reach its destination of Hurghada Marina on 29 November.
The Sea Story had 44 people on board. File pic: Dive Pro Liveaboard
Some survivors had been airlifted to safety on a helicopter, officials said.
The firm that operates the yacht, Dive Pro Liveaboard in Hurghada, said it has no information on the matter.
According to its maker’s website, the Sea Story was built in 2022.
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The incident comes after the Egyptian Meteorological Authority issued a warning on Saturday about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea.
The organisation had advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.
Some tourist companies have stopped or limited operations on the Red Sea due to the potential dangers from conflicts in the region.
A motion has been filed to drop the charges against Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result.
Mr Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The president-elect pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case was then put on hold for months as Mr Trump’s team argued he could not be prosecuted.
Special Counsel Jack Smith. Pic: Reuters
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On Monday, prosecutors working with special counsel Jack Smith, who had led the investigation, asked a federal judge to dismiss the case over long-standing US justice department policy, dating back to the 1970s, that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
It marks the end of the department’s landmark effort to hold Mr Trump accountable for the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 when thousands of Trump supporters assaulted police, broke through barricades, and swarmed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the US Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Mr Smith’s team had been assessing how to wind down both the election interference case and the separate classified documents case in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory over vice president Kamala Harris earlier this month, effectively killing any chance of success for the case.
In court papers, prosecutors said “the [US] Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated”.
They said the ban [on prosecuting sitting presidents] “is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind”.
Mr Trump, who has said he would sack Mr Smith as soon as he takes office in January, and promised to pardon some convicted rioters, has long dismissed both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case as politically motivated.
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. Pic: AP
He was accused of illegally keeping classified papers after leaving office in 2021, some of which were allegedly found in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
The election interference case stalled after the US Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, which Mr Trump’s lawyers exploited to demand the charges against him be dismissed.
Mr Smith’s request to drop the case still needs to be approved by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
No date had been set for a trial.
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At least 1,500 cases have been brought against those accused of trying to overthrow the election result on 6 January 2021, resulting in more than 1,100 convictions, the Associated Press said.
More than 950 defendants have been sentenced and 600 of them jailed for terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.
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