Rishi Sunak and other Tory MPs came under pressure on Friday not to “run away” from defending Parliament’s rules by failing to vote through the damning Commons Privileges Committee report on Boris Johnson.
Damian Green, who was Theresa May’s de-facto Deputy Prime Minister, argued that to “deliberately abstain is not really rising to the importance of the occasion”.
But former Tory party chairman Sir Jake Berry severely criticised the report and said he would be voting against it on Monday.
Other supporters of the ex-PM are also saying they will do so.
A significant number of Tory MPs are expected to abstain, or simply not turn up, as the vote is reportedly set to be on a “one line whip”, which means they will not be under pressure to take part in it.
Many grassroot Tories are supporters of Mr Johnson and MPs mays be wary of upsetting their local party members.
The 106-page report by the committee, which has a Conservative majority but is chaired by Labour MP Harriet Harman, found that Mr Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over the “partygate” scandal by claiming that Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in No10.
It recommended that if he were still an MP that he should be suspended for 90 days after also being found in contempt of Parliament with his scathing response to its findings last Friday, having been given a draft copy of the report.
The Tory civil war has reignited after the report was published on Thursday and MPs are due to vote on it on Monday.
Mr Green, who chairs the One Nation group of centrist Conservatives, stressed that Parliament should “respects its own systems”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “If we as Parliament run away from that then it calls into question whether we should carry on having this self-regulation or whether it shouldn’t all be outsourced to other people.
“That would seem to me to be a very serious step.”
He explained that he intended to vote for the report with a “heavy heart” and “sadness”, given that he had worked in Government and sat around the Cabinet table with Mr Johnson.
Pressed on whether he believed that it was important that the Prime Minister turned up on Monday to vote for the report, he said: “Every individual will make up their own mind.
“Personally, it’s such an important act that deliberately abstaining is not really rising to the importance of the occasion.”
However, he also added: “The Prime Minister of all of us is the busiest. It’s not for me to tell him how to behave in this sort of situation, perhaps it particularly falls on backbenchers to care about the future of parliamentary discipline.
“It seems to me that the report is very clear cut and Parliament should respect its own procedures.”
Sir Jake said he was “almost certain that Parliament will vote in favour” of the report.
But he stressed that he will “certainly be one of those in the no lobby opposing” it.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think both the conclusions and, to some extent, the way the committee was made up in terms of this report are wrong.
“It stretches credulity to believe that it was an intentional attempt to mislead Parliament.”
He predicted that Mr Johnson’s political career was not over, saying: “Boris is the proverbial rubber ball. He always comes bouncing back.”
He also branded an “absolute disgrace” that the committee had “threatened” MPs who criticised its report on Mr Johnson
He emphasised: “For the first time in my parliamentary career, I’m afraid to talk about a report or the findings of a committee of Parliament, because they have threatened MPs that if they do so, they themselves will be subject to the sorts of sanctions.
“It’s an attack on free speech. It’s an absolute disgrace and it rather begs the question that if the committee is so certain and so happy with their findings, why are they trying to stop any debate on this, to gag MPs and prevent them talking about it.”
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt called for calm, saying “all of us must do what we think is right and others must leave us alone to do so”.
Downing Street said Mr Sunak would “take the time to fully consider the report”, but officials were unable to say whether he would take part in Monday’s vote.
Mr Johnson has condemned the report’s conclusion as “deranged,” claimings its 14-month investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.
He had already branded it a “kangaroo court” as he announced on Friday that he was quitting as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
The committee found five grounds on which Mr Johnson misled the Commons, including most centrally by claiming Covid rules and guidance were followed at all times in No10.
It accused him of seeking to “re-write the meaning of the rules and guidance to fit his own evidence” and of “deliberately closing his mind” to facts about Covid rule breaches in Downing Street.
It increased its recommended suspension to 90 days for “repeated contempts and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process”.
The MPs said this was done by deliberately misleading the House, deliberately misleading the committee, breaching confidence, impugning the committee, and being complicit in a campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee.
It also recommended that the former PM be denied an ex-MP’s pass to allow him access to Parliament in future.
