Rishi Sunak advised to ‘stand as much as Boris Johnson’ and drive him to pay again partygate authorized charges

Rishi Sunak has been advised to “stand up to Boris Johnson” and drive him to pay again the tax payer money spent on his partygate authorized charges.

Pressure is mounting on the prime minister after his predecessor was discovered to have knowingly misled parliament a number of instances along with his statements about events in Downing Street through the COVID pandemic.

Politics Live: Tories torn on Johnson partygate report vote

The bombshell Privileges Committee report beneficial a 90-day suspension from the Commons for the previous Tory chief – one thing that will not occur given his dramatic resignation days earlier than the findings went public on Thursday.

While Mr Johnson might nonetheless lose his cross granting him entry to parliament, opposition MPs need him to face additional punishment, with calls rising for him to pay again the £245,000 of public cash used to fund his attorneys within the inquiry.

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds advised Sky News: “I think the really big question coming out of this is whether Rishi Sunak is going to have the backbone to take action against Boris Johnson.

“It’s taken a extremely very long time for him to react to any of this, sadly.

“He hasn’t stood up against Boris Johnson and in particular, Rishi Sunak has continued to require the taxpayer to actually pay Boris Johnson’s legal bills. Now, that’s wrong.

“Boris Johnson ought to pay for his authorized payments. He’s already making some huge cash from talking at completely different occasions. He ought to pay that cash again to the taxpayer. That’s what’s wanted.”

Sky News understands that Mr Johnson will start writing a weekly column for the Daily Mail following his exit from the Commons and, as first reported by POLITICO, can be on a “very high six figure sum”.

Ms Dodds stated there’s a distinction between the previous prime minister and other people throughout the nation who’re “struggling with the cost of living and Conservative mortgage penalties” as she referred to as on Mr Sunak to “stand up to Boris Johnson”.

The Labour frontbencher additionally criticised the prime minister for approving Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours checklist – which got here out simply hours earlier than he resigned and included Downing Street aides caught up in the partygate scandal.

But she he stopped in need of agreeing with the Lib Dems that Mr Johnson also needs to be stripped of the lifetime allowance of £115,000 a 12 months granted to former prime ministers.

Lib Dem chief Sir Ed Davey advised Sky News: “I think now we look to the prime minister to show some leadership.

“Rishi Sunak has been fairly weak on this. He’s kowtowed to his backbenchers and other people within the Conservative Party who nonetheless will not face the details about Boris Johnson, and Rishi Sunak ought to due to this fact withdraw this lifetime allowance.

Partygate report: The key findings of privileges committee that sealed Boris Johnson’s fate

“Boris Johnson will be paid £115,000 a year for the rest of his life to organise his offices. I mean, I just don’t think that sits alongside this report. He deserves further punishment, for sure.”

Downing Street stated there are “no plans” to take away Mr Johnson’s allowance, with the PM’s spokesperson saying: “These arrangements are fairly long standing. It’s not a salary allowance. It’s the reimbursement of the expenses of office and secretarial costs.”

MPs to vote on partygate report

It comes as Mr Sunak faces a probably acrimonious vote on the committee’s findings on Monday with some Tory MPs unsure about what to do.

Mr Johnson stays popular with social gathering members however polling suggests he’s not almost as in style among the many wider voters.

Although the sanctions proposed by the Tory-majority committee are anticipated to cross, allies of Mr Johnson warned their colleagues they might face battles with their native events to stay as candidates on the subsequent election in the event that they again the movement.

In an indication of Tory divisions, former prime minister Liz Truss is amongst those that have stated the punishments beneficial by the privileges committee are too harsh, whereas Conservative MP Anthony Browne has stated he’ll again the report “to stand up in support of our democratic institutions and in support of high standards in public life”.

Downing Street refused to be drawn on how the prime minister will vote when requested on Thursday night.

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Conservatives ‘consumed with sleaze and infighting’

Sir Ed stated that if Mr Sunak had been to skip the vote it might affirm “yet again his weakness” and “would be a massive failure if he doesn’t join parliament in holding the former prime minister Boris Johnson to account”.

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Johnson verdict a blow to Sunak’s hopes of maintaining peace in the Tory civil war

However, the Lid Dem chief additionally pressured that whereas the vote is necessary, the federal government mustn’t waste an excessive amount of parliamentary time on it and as a substitute “pass emergency support for families struggling with soaring mortgage rates”.

He stated: “The Conservatives are consumed with sleaze and infighting and are doing nothing to help families who are being overwhelmed by soaring mortgage costs.

“The nation is in a cost-of-living emergency. For the Conservatives to dedicate a complete day to debating this report exhibits they’re much more out-of-touch than we thought.”