Tories MPs must ask themselves who they serve: the people or Boris Johnson

They danced and partied while others mourned alone. How can one not express a view on all that? You cannot be neutral about such a betrayal.

For reasons that cannot be entirely rational, Johnson still enjoys as a messianic hold on many members of the party, who readily subscribe to the absurd idea that he was driven out of office by some sort of conspiracy (PA Wire)

Today is a day when Tory MPs must ask themselves: “Whose side am I on?” Are they on the side of parliamentary democracy, the people and their leader, Rishi Sunak; or are they on the side of Boris Johnson, a liar and a disaster, and a man who has done more to damage the nation and their party as anyone in recent times? We’ve seen the likes of Michael Gove spouting weasel words to justify ducking that choice. Others, such as Tobias Ellwood, have been persuaded that this is a moral issue, indeed one of moral leadership, and that this time at least they must “do the right thing”, and endorse the Commons’ own judgement that Johnson callously lied to parliament time and again during a time of so much national distress.

Johnson presided over a culture of law breaking and contempt for the sufferings of the public. They danced and partied while others mourned alone, and joked about their cheekiness. Arrogantly and hypocritically, they ignore the rules they imposed on others. How can one not express a view on all that? You cannot be neutral about such a betrayal.

It is disturbing that there is so much talk about the bulk of the Conservative MPs abstaining in today’s vote on the privileges committee report, or else finding some other way to avoid the Commons having a vote on it at all, and having it “nodded through”. It is certainly expedient. For one thing, they must be frightened of their constituency associations’ reaction to such a move. It might be career-ending. As ever, Nadine Dorries, high priestess in the Cult of Boris, expressed it in the most fanatical terms: ““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.”

That’s true, depressingly. For reasons that cannot be entirely rational, Johnson still enjoys a messianic hold on many members of the party, who readily subscribe to the absurd idea that he was driven out of office by some sort of conspiracy seeking to reverse Brexit, with the snake Sunak as its chief plotter. Johnson has lately inflated this fiction, with lurid Trumpian language and attacks on the parliamentary system itself, a new low for a man now seemingly keen to become “Britain Trump”, as the former president once dubbed him. They think Johnson can win the next election for them, when in fact he's already lost it for them.

Such delusions, and the threat of retribution they carry, make it doubly important that the findings of the Privileges Committee are endorsed by as many Conservatives as possible in a free vote driven by their own consciences. Only then will they be able to face the electorate with some sense of confidence. Only then will their party be able to escape the gravitational pull of Johnson’s vast ego. Hopefully Labour and the SNP will table amendments and find a way to get a proper, registered, vote in the motion adopting the report.

There are too many weak Conservative MPs who can’t or won’t argue their case with their own activists, and will hide in the loos when the opposition forces the vote. Pathetically, on such a momentous vote, they will be attempting to abstain – or even to vote against the report. Johnson, who actually doesn’t want anyone to see how very small his support is, has let it be known he doesn’t want a revolt, and is content to let the vote go by default or with mass abstentions. That, though, conveniently means that many Conservatives won’t have to register a positive vote for democracy and against Johnson.

It will do them no good in any case. Those Tory MPs who evade their responsibilities and find better things to do than take part in this historic Commons division, will have to face the wrath of the voters when the general election – and those imminent by-elections – arrives. The media will publicise the names of the men and women who put the shredded remains of Johnson’s reputation ahead of the national interest, and thus shamefully undermined the authority of the Commons. These are all too often the same figures, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who otherwise deify parliament so performatively, and make so much fuss about the Commons “taking back control”. Only when it suits them.

The Committee of Privileges was tasked with the job of finding out whether Johnson lied to them, and, that becoming self-evident, they sought to determine if it was knowingly or deliberately done. The committee membership and chair were approved unanimously. They carried out their work meticulously and were scrupulously fair to Johnson. He was given an interim report and later a draft final report to consider and offer further evidence and argument – things not given to the man in the dock in a trial. Johnson was the beneficiary of the best legal advice taxpayers’ money can buy. He was given the opportunity to argue his case openly, where he foolishly used bombast and refused to accept the legitimacy of the process. The process was fair and the findings were well argued. The critics can only impugn the probity of those involved, which makes no difference to the evidence or finding that Johnson lied – both during the pandemic and again to the Privileges Committee. He did so. He knew it, and the whole country knows it. Only some of our more cowardly Conservative members seek to pretend that they don’t, and persist in the fantasy that they can bring Boris back. They’ve more chance of resurrecting Lazarus and installing him as prime minister.