Less than neutral views of MPs deciding his fate

THESE are the seven MPs who will grill Boris Johnson about Partygate:

ANDY CARTER (CON)

WROTE on his website when the PM quit: ‘I believe this is the right thing to do, and is in the nation’s best interests... Contempt is a matter which would require Mr Johnson to resign if he were to be found in breach.’

ALBERTO COSTA (CON)

TOLD a news website: ‘It’s not my fault that he’s had to resign, it’s not Rishi’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault but the man that has held or holds that office. He has to look himself in the mirror and ask himself why he felt that he was unable to maintain the trust of the parliamentary party and the country at large.’

ALLAN DORANS (SNP)

WROTE in a newsletter last year: ‘People ...were understandably furious that while they were following the Covid rules and making personal sacrifices, Boris Johnson was breaking them by holding illegal Downing Street parties. It is then welcome news that the Metropolitan Police have recently confirmed that the law was broken and initial fines have been issued. However, Boris Johnson should have resigned a long time ago – it cannot be one rule for us, and another, or none, for the Tory Government.’

YVONNE FOVARGUE (LAB)

POSTED on Twitter ahead of the 2019 election: ‘Boris Johnson tells disgraceful lies. Here are just ten of them.’

HARRIET HARMAN, CHAIRMAN (LAB)

TWEETED last April: ‘If you get Covid regs FPN [penalty] you can either admit guilt or go to [court] to challenge it. If PM and CX [chancellor] admit guilt, accepting police right that they breached regs, then they are also admitting that they misled the House of Commons.’

SIR BERNARD JENKIN (CON)

TOLD Sky News in February last year: ‘We are looking for a change in the capability and character of the Government. So that we can have confidence nothing as clumsy or mortifying as this Partygate episode could ever happen again.’

SIR CHARLES WALKER (CON)

TOLD Channel 4 News early last year: ‘I think there’s so much grief and pain out there that if he was to say, “Look, I understand that I asked so much of the country and it needs to come to terms with that grief and pain and start the process of healing and if it could do that better without me in No10 then I shall stand aside”, that would show great courage on behalf of the Prime Minister.’