A Nottinghamshire MP has spoken about why he boycotted the partygate vote. Brendan Clarke-Smith, MP for Bassetlaw, announced that he will be boycotting the vote in parliament to decide on the partygate report.
The House of Commons debated the report looking into how Boris Johnson was found to have lied over partygate, and whether or not to sanction the former prime minister after he mislead parliament. The report looks into multiple breaches of the lockdowns.
On Monday (June 19) evening, MPs overwhelmingly voted to back a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to Parliament with his partygate denials. Just seven MPs voted against the Privileges Committee’s findings, in a humiliating defeat for the former prime minister less than a year after he left No 10.
With 354 votes in favour, MPs endorsed sanctions against Mr Johnson recommended by the committee, including banning him from having a pass to access Parliament, which is usually available to former MPs. The Tory-majority panel also concluded that Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension for misleading the House when he told the Commons that coronavirus>Covid rules were obeyed in No 10 despite parties taking place.
Mr Clarke-Smith issued a tweet ahead of the vote stated: "I am 100% against today’s appalling recommendations. I fully intended to vote against, but I will be standing with my colleagues and not giving others the satisfaction of taking part in their silly games with a division.
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"At least the cricket is worth watching today." Following his tweet many users took to Twitter to express their frustration that he is not voting on the matter and instead watching cricket, when he was elected to represent his constituents and their views.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Clarke-Smith described the report as "extraordinarily harsh and unfair." Presenter Patrick Christys asked the Conservative MP: "What do you make of the fact that MPs are currently in the House behind you now discussing Boris Johnson yet again, absolutely slating him, talking about taking his parliament pass off him, not a lot of MPs are going in to bat for him."
Mr Clarke-Smith replied: "Well it's on par with the public flogging effectively isn't it, as you've said Patrick people are far more bothered about what's happening with their mortgages, what's happening with illegal migration, you've mentioned housing as well generally, so people want us to move on from this really."
He added: "I think it's actually quite spiteful to take his pass off him as well and I think the thing is about today this is a house vote, it's a free vote, so it means that you can vote any way you like, and it's not normally whipped so you don't have to be here, you don't have to vote on it. Now people on my side, we're not being whipped for it but I believe the opposition are."
He went on to say that the opposition will have "huge number of people turning up" to support the punishment and accept the findings, but his side will have "deserted benches."
Mr Clarke-Smith added: "I'm not going to take part in this, I'm not going to legitimise it, I'm not going to speak I'm not even going to vote as I think we have far better things to do."
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