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South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes explains why he abstained from Boris Johnson Partygate vote




MP Sir John Hayes has explained why he abstained from this week’s Partygate vote – labelling the recommended penalties ‘excessive’.

On Monday 354 ministers voted in favour of approving the privileges committee’s report into former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which found he had repeatedly misled Parliament about parties hosted at Downing Street during lockdown.

The committee stated that had Mr Johnson not stood down as an MP they would have recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for 90 days, which could have triggered a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.

South Holland MP Sir John Hayes
South Holland MP Sir John Hayes

“I wasn’t prepared to vote for a recommendation that seemed to be excessive in terms of the penalties,” said the South Holland and the Deepings MP, who was one of many Conservatives who did not vote.

“It was out of tune with the previous penalties the committee has adopted and I didn’t ageree with the process.”

Sir John labelled Labour’s Harriet Harman an ‘inapproporiate’ choice of chair for the committee, ‘given that she’d already stated her view’.

The Conservative MP also also labelled the process ‘imperfect’.

“The other thing is Boris Johnson has now left parliament and we’re talking about events that happened a long time ago.

“There’s a risk the public feel this is very self indulgent, spending a lot of time talking about these things when there’s other things we should be debating.”

Sir John told this paper he could not vote against the report as he believes ‘it is important there’s a propoer process to hold minsters, particularly prime ministers, to account’.

“The other thing is that Boris Johnson is a remarkable figure who delivered Brexit and won an election, so a lot of the people who are now dismissing Boris Johnson need to know that,” he continued.

“Factored into his character and appeal is that he’s, to use the best word, rather haphazard. It’s not as if we didn’t know that about him – it’s part of his appeal that he’s not a manufactured politician but soemone who struck a chord with people.”

A total of 118 Conservatives voted to approve the report, with some observers suggesting the no votes have aided the former Prime Minister’s claims that the process was a ’kangaroo court’ and left the abstainees in favourable positiosn were Johnson to make a return to frontline politics.

Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman, who lives in South Holland, also opted not to vote.

He told the BBC he respected the privileges committee but didn’t totally agree with the findings.

“I come to the conclusion there should be no vote... Parliament should saay this is the responsibility of the privilieges commitee, we allow them to get on with it.

“Abstaining is the logical course if you don’t agree with every single word but you do accept the report.”



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