In a blistering debate, the committee’s chair Harriet Harman said: ‘Johnson’s dishonesty, if left unchecked, would have contaminated the whole of government’. A handful of Conservatives defended Johnson but later abstained. Eight Cabinet members backed the report, including the Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk. Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, speaking in the debate, said she believed Johnson had misled parliament.
Due to Johnson’s resignation last week, the committee’s recommended sanction of 90 days—increased after Johnson called the committee a ‘kangaroo court’— cannot be enforced. However, Johnson may be blocked from receiving an ex-MPs’ pass to the parliamentary estate.
The year-long inquiry assessed whether Johnson deliberately misled the House about gatherings in 10 Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown.
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