In a dramatic last-minute U-turn, the government abandoned plans to block a probe into whether Boris Johnson misled the house over Partygate.
The climbdown adds to the sense of chaos in Westminster on a crucial day for the PM’s premiership. He’s on a trip to India.
Conservative MPs will now be given a free vote on Labour’s motion to refer their leader to the Committee of Privileges. They have been told they can abstain on Labour’s motion, meaning it will almost certainly pass.
The government also scrapped its proposal to delay a possible investigation into allegations of contempt by the Prime Minister, less than 24 hours after it was tabled.
It was expected last night, when Labour submitted its motion to Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, that MPs would be forced by the whips’ office to side with the government, treating it like a vote of confidence in the PM.
Number 10 was also hoping to delay the probe following the conclusion of the Metropolitan Police’s criminal investigation, as well as the publication of civil servant Sue Gray’s “full” report.
In a separate curve-ball, Scotland Yard says it will not be handing out any more fixed-penalty notices before the May elections.
It conjures a possible nightmare scenario for the Prime Minister in just a few weeks’ time: further fines, a parliamentary probe into contempt, a set of disastrous council results and perhaps the first of many pieces of photographic evidence from the lockdown-breaking parties.
A senior government source claims that the PM has “always been clear that he’s happy to face whatever inquiries Parliament sees fit and is happy for the House to decide how it wishes to proceed”.
But Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, says it is “humiliating” for Tory backbenchers who “were being pressured to vote for the government’s cover up”.
The result of the vote is expected later this evening.
