PM pledges partygate vote to limit size of Tory revolt

BORIS JOHNSON today promised MPs a vote on whether he should be investigated over claims he misled Parliament as the Government scrambled to limit the size of a Tory revolt over the partygate scandal.

- David Bond and Nicholas Cecil

The Prime Minister was today urging Conservative MPs to delay any vote on his conduct until after the police had completed its investigations into the series of parties in Downing Street during the Covid lockdown and the senior civil servant Sue Gray has published her final report on the affair.

Asked on a trip to India if Parliament will have a vote on whether to allow the privileges committee to look at whether he misled the House, Mr Johnson replied: “That’s fine but all I am saying is what people should have is the full facts.”

However, a number of senior Tory MPs were expected to rebel and abstain on the amendment delaying the vote. David Davis, the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden who has called on Mr Johnson to stand down, confirmed to the Standard that he was set to abstain in today’s vote. “I am in a similar position to Charles Walker. I don’t think the Government should intervene in this, but I won’t vote with Labour, so I shall be abstaining.”

The government amendment was expected to pass today. However, the atmosphere at Westminster was febrile and with Mr Johnson out of the country, the mood of some Tory potential rebels was said to be hardening.