A North East Conservative MP has hit out at Boris Johnson after colleagues voted to back the privileges report into his conduct by an overwhelming margin.
Hexham MP Guy Opperman was the only Tory MP from the region to back the report of the privileges committee into Mr Johnson and Partygate, which found the former Prime Minister had repeatedly misled parliament about lockdown parties at Downing Street.
Just six Tory MPs backed Mr Johnson and voted against the report, while 118 voted for it and the majority- 225 - followed current PM Rishi Sunak's choice to avoid the House of Commons and had no vote recorded.
Read more: How every North East MP voted on the Boris Johnson privileges committee report
Mr Opperman, who was first elected in 2010, issued a short statement on social media explaining his decision. He wrote: "I voted to accept the Privileges Committee Report this evening.
"I have read the report in full. It is not acceptable to mislead the House of Commons, whoever the person, whatever the surrounding circumstances. The House of Commons is more important than all of us."
Mr Opperman declined to provide any further comment when contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. His fellow Northumberland MPs Ian Levy, who represents Blyth Valley, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan of Berwick, did not register a vote.
The county's only Labour MP, Wansbeck's Ian Lavery, voted for the report after accusing Mr Johnson of being a "pound shop Winston Churchill tribute act" upon the publication of the damning report last week.
The six Tory MPs who voted against the report were Bill Cash, Heather Wheeler, Nick Fletcher, Joy Morrissey, Adam Holloway and Karl McCartney. Labour Chief Whip and Tynemouth MP Sir Alan Campbell also voted against the vote in order to force the parliamentary vote in the first place.
Mr Johnson previously branded the findings of the committee "rubbish" and said it was a "dreadful day for MPs and democracy".
