Supporters of Boris Johnson have vowed to target Conservative members of the privileges committee and Tory MPs who endorse its findings for deselection, as the aftermath of the report prompted vicious internal infighting. One ally of the former prime minister said they expected Bernard Jenkin, the most senior Tory on the committee, which said Johnson misled parliament in denying any lockdown-breaking parties, could be a particular focus in his Harwich and North Essex seat. It remains to be seen, however, whether there is much remaining appetite in the Conservative party at large, and especially in the parliamentary party, for Johnson-backing sabotage in advance of a vote on the report on Monday. In the hours after it was published, saying the former prime minister would have been suspended from the Commons for 90 days if he had not stepped down as an MP last week, a series of supporters condemned the findings as unfair, excessive and biased.
“They just don’t realise the extent of anger they have created, and that will be manifested,” one Johnson backer said. However, such comments came entirely from existing and diehard Johnson supporters, many of whom had been given or promised honours by the former prime minister. The conclusions will be put to a free vote of MPs on Monday, which will prove the key test of how much support Johnson still has on the Tory benches. With the vote expected to be subject to just a one-line whip, making attendance optional, it seems likely a number of Conservative MPs will simply miss it altogether. Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, told MPs as she announced the timetable that her advice was that they should “read the report ... make their own judgments about it, and take the task that is our privilege to do seriously and soberly”. But with opposition parties set to turn out en masse to back the motion, which can be amended, even some Johnson supporters said they expected it to pass. “Inevitably Boris will lose the vote because you have the whole of the opposition against him, but you also have the Boris haters in the Conservative party,” Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former cabinet minister who was knighted in Johnson’s resignation honours list, told Sky News. One of the first to condemn the report was Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary and key Johnson ally, who has vowed to resign as an MP amid a row over whether she was wrongly denied a peerage in his honours list. Dorries said the report was “quite bizarre”, warning Tory MPs who voted to endorse it that they would face repercussions, also singling out Jenkin for criticism. “Any Conservative MP who would vote for this report is fundamentally not a Conservative and will be held to account by members and the public. Deselections may follow. It’s serious. MPs will now have to show this committee what real justice looks like and how it’s done.” Brendan Clarke-Smith, a Johnson loyalist elected in his 2019 landslide, tweeted that he was “appalled at what I have read and the spiteful, vindictive and overreaching conclusions of the report”, adding that he would vote against the findings on Monday. Simon Clarke, another former minister, and also knighted by Johnson, said: “I am amazed at the harshness of today’s report by the privileges committee. I believed Boris before and I believe him today. This punishment is absolutely extraordinary to the point of sheer vindictiveness, and I will vote against this report on Monday.”
James Duddridge, an MP who served as Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary for some of his time in No 10 and was previously knighted by him, likened the committee’s verdict to medieval punishment. “Why not go the full way, put Boris in the stocks and providing rotten food to throw … at him,” he tweeted. “Moving him around the marginals, so the country could share in the humiliation. History will hold Boris in higher regard than this committee. I thank him for his service.” Other support for Johnson came from Michael Fabricant, also knighted in Johnson’s resignation honours list, who told the BBC that when the former PM gave evidence to the committee, some members “were pulling faces, were looking heavenwards, were indicating they didn’t agree with what Boris was saying”, indicating preconceived bias. Jake Berry, also previously knighted by Johnson, suggested his removal as an MP was an attempt by “the blob” to distract from soaring mortgage rates. Andrea Jenkyns, who was made a dame in the resignation honours, tweeted a photo saying: “I’m backing Boris.” Zac Goldsmith, the former Tory MP made a peer by Johnson, condemned the length of the proposed suspension, tweeting: “This is so obviously ridiculous (& vindictive). If they’d been clever, they would have recommended a 9-day ban.”