Johnson ally blocked from joining partygate committee

LIZ TRUSS has shelved Boris Johnson’s plans to nominate Tory MP Christopher Chope to the body that will be investigating whether he lied to Parliament over partygate.

In one of her first acts as Prime Minister last night she withdrew two motions to appoint the backbencher to the Commons privileges committee.

The cross-bench group is conducting an inquiry into whether Mr Johnson committed contempt of Parliament by insisting there were no lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.

One of Mr Johnson’s last acts from No10 was to propose Mr Chope, a keen supporter, for the Commons privileges committee and its standards committee.

Both motions were scheduled to come before the House yesterday but Adam Holloway, a Conservative whip, said that they had been withdrawn hours after Ms Truss took office.

MPS were expected to have objected to his appointment to either of the bodies and that would have left Ms Truss with an awkward decision over whether to publicly back her predecessor’s pick.

Mr Chope would have replaced party colleague Laura Farris, who announced in July that she was stepping down from both committees.

As an MP he is best known for his long record of blocking Bills by shouting “object” when they are presented to Parliament for their Second Reading.

He was widely criticised when he used the tactic in 2018 to block plans for a law to make “up-skirting” an offence.