Boris Johnson U-turns on partygate vote

MPs are now likely to pass the motion referring Boris Johnson to a privileges committee inquiry into whether he misled parliament after the government dropped its opposition. Now, Conservative MPs have a free vote and are on a one-line whip, with their party whips instructing them that the Prime Minister is ‘happy for the Commons to decide on any referrals to the Privilege Committee’ and that they are not going to move the amendment they tabled trying to delay the entire thing until the publication of the Sue Gray report.

There was a hope in No. 10 that there would not even be a vote and it could just be nodded through if Labour decided not to press the issue. The thinking – at the very last minute – was that this at least would take some of the pressure and drama out of today. But that’s unlikely, given Keir Starmer has just suggested in the Commons that it is important there is a vote and that MPs have nowhere to hide on their position.