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Brendan Hughes

Brendan Hughes: Boris Johnson partygate report findings a surprise to no one in Northern Ireland

The conclusion of a standards committee report that Boris Johnson lied to MPs over partygate comes as a surprise to absolutely no one in Northern Ireland.

Remember Brexit? Mr Johnson famously promised to "get Brexit done", helping the Conservatives achieve a landslide Westminster election victory in 2019.

Yet more than three years on Northern Ireland is still left reeling from his botched job, with the fall-out of post-Brexit trade barriers with Great Britain bringing down Stormont power-sharing.

Read more: Brendan Hughes: Low-key DUP deputy leader was a missed opportunity

He told Northern Ireland business leaders there would be "no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind" as a result of his Withdrawal Agreement.

But it will take years to fully understand the red-tape outworkings of the Northern Ireland Protocol he signed up to, which ties the region to the European Union single market.

This was the type of deal, creating an Irish Sea trade border, which he said would be "damaging the fabric of the Union".

"No British Conservative government could or should sign up to any such arrangement," he told a DUP conference in 2018.

And yet a year later that's exactly what he did, all for electoral expediency.

His subsequent threat to use Westminster legislation to unilaterally tear up the international agreement he signed only served to damage political relations across Ireland, Britain and Europe.

In his resignation statement last week, the former Prime Minister continued to claim he had got Brexit "done" and this was something to be "hugely proud of".

For many the Privileges Committee report will be seen as the point where Mr Johnson's trademark slipperiness has finally caught up with him.

In a damning assessment, the committee found Mr Johnson deliberately misled the House with his partygate denials before being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation against the MPs investigating him.

It recommended that Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension had he not already resigned in advance of its judgment and be banned from holding a pass to access Parliament.

Mr Johnson was furious at what he called a "deranged conclusion", claiming the 14-month probe had delivered "what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".

A snap YouGov poll would suggest voters are siding with the committee, with 69% of those surveyed believing Mr Johnson knowingly misled Parliament.

The figure was 51% among Tory voters, suggesting a deep divide which the Conservative Party may find difficult to navigate.

Is this the end of Mr Johnson's political career? Perhaps not. And even if it is, he won't be going quietly.

The former Prime Minister is set to begin a new weekly column in the Daily Mail, giving him a prominent platform to continue being a thorn in the side of rival Rishi Sunak.

There is speculation Mr Johnson could sit back until after the next general election to see if Mr Sunak suffers a defeat to Labour before plotting a return to the top of the Tory Party.

But this would be a long-term strategy with many moving parts, and some may doubt whether Mr Johnson would retain the focus needed to remain on course for such a comeback.

In the immediate future, Mr Sunak faces a battle to hold his warring party together as MPs vote on the Privileges Committee report on Monday.

The Prime Minister also faces three by-elections following the resignations of Mr Johnson and allies Nigel Adams and Nadine Dorries.

Two will be held next month, but Ms Dorries has yet to formally resign - prolonging the pressure with the potential of a third falling in the autumn during party conference season.

The Covid partygate saga may be coming to an end - but get ready for the hangover.

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