Divided Tories prepare for free vote on Boris Johnson Partygate report

Boris Johnson has told allies not to vote against the privileges committee’s report on Partygate on Monday when MPs will decide whether to give it their formal approval.

Sources close to the former prime minister said on Friday he has told supporters not to reject the report during what is likely to be a heated but largely symbolic debate next week.

The report, which was published on Thursday, found Johnson lied to the Commons when he told MPs he believed he had not broken lockdown rules by attending parties in Downing Street during the pandemic.

MPs will be given their chance to comment on the report during a debate on Monday, which will culminate in a free vote to approve it.

The committee said that had Johnson still been an MP, it would have recommended he be given a 90-day suspension. Johnson’s decision to stand down before the report was published has rendered Monday’s vote largely moot – although a large majority in favour would further underline the widespread condemnation of Johnson’s actions.

The Conservative party is deeply divided over the vote, with some backbenchers promising to approve it but others warning they will retaliate against anyone who does so.

The Tory former cabinet minister Damian Green said on Friday morning he intended to vote for the report, calling it “very clearcut”.

“I think it’s important that parliament respects its own systems,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We set up this committee asking them to do this very serious report. They’ve come up with what is clearly a very damning set of conclusions. If parliament runs away from that then it calls into question whether we should carry on having this kind of self-regulation.”

Johnson’s allies admit they expect parliament to approve the report, with opposition parties united in favour of it and mass abstentions expected on the Tory benches.

Johnson has told allies to stay away from the vote in the hope of depriving the moment of drama. But several of those closest to the former prime minister are promising to target any Conservative MP who does turn up to vote in favour.

One Johnson backer told the Guardian on Thursday: “They just don’t realise the extent of anger they have created, and that will be manifested.” Nadine Dorries, who has promised to resign from her Mid Bedfordshire seat in protest at not being given a peerage but has not yet done so, has warned “deselections will follow” for Tory MPs who vote for the report.

Downing Street has still not said whether Rishi Sunak will attend Monday’s vote, with the government declining to put pressure on MPs. The Telegraph reported on Friday the prime minister planned to meet an unnamed foreign leader on that day, which might render him unable to vote.

Johnson is likely to cause more difficulties for Sunak on Friday when he is expected to be unveiled as the new mystery columnist writing weekly for the Daily Mail. A report in the Financial Times even suggested he could stand as an independent in next year’s London mayoral contest.

Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, made it clear on Thursday the government would not put pressure on Tory MPs to vote one way or the other on Monday. She told the Commons she wanted MPs to “read the report … make their own judgments about it, and take the task that is our privilege to do seriously and soberly”.