Rishi Sunak has been told to “stand up to Boris Johnson” and force him to pay back the tax payer cash spent on his partygate legal fees.
Pressure is mounting on the prime minister after his predecessor was found to have knowingly misled parliament multiple times with his statements about parties in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic.
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The bombshell Privileges Committee report recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons for the former Tory leader – something that won’t happen given his dramatic resignation days before the findings went public on Thursday.
While Mr Johnson could still lose his pass granting him access to parliament, opposition MPs want him to face further punishment, with calls growing for him to pay back the £245,000 of public money used to fund his lawyers in the inquiry.
Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds told Sky News: “I think the really big question coming out of this is whether Rishi Sunak is going to have the backbone to take action against Boris Johnson.
“It’s taken a really long time for him to react to any of this, unfortunately.
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“He hasn’t stood up against Boris Johnson and in particular, Rishi Sunak has continued to require the taxpayer to actually pay Boris Johnson’s legal bills. Now, that’s wrong.
“Boris Johnson should pay for his legal bills. He’s already making a lot of money from speaking at different events. He should pay that money back to the taxpayer. That’s what’s needed.”
Sky News understands that Mr Johnson will begin writing a weekly column for the Daily Mail following his exit from the Commons and, as first reported by POLITICO, will be on a “very high six figure sum”.
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Ms Dodds said there is a contrast between the former prime minister and people across the country who are “struggling with the cost of living and Conservative mortgage penalties” as she called on Mr Sunak to “stand up to Boris Johnson”.
The Labour frontbencher also criticised the prime minister for approving Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list – which came out just hours before he resigned and included Downing Street aides caught up in the partygate scandal.
But she he stopped short of agreeing with the Lib Dems that Mr Johnson should also be stripped of the lifetime allowance of £115,000 a year granted to former prime ministers.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told Sky News: “I think now we look to the prime minister to show some leadership.
“Rishi Sunak has been quite weak on this. He’s kowtowed to his backbenchers and people in the Conservative Party who still won’t face the facts about Boris Johnson, and Rishi Sunak should therefore withdraw this lifetime allowance.
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“Boris Johnson will be paid £115,000 a year for the rest of his life to organise his offices. I mean, I just don’t think that sits alongside this report. He deserves further punishment, for sure.”
Downing Street said there are “no plans” to remove Mr Johnson’s allowance, with the PM’s spokesperson saying: “These arrangements are fairly long standing. It’s not a salary allowance. It’s the reimbursement of the expenses of office and secretarial costs.”
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MPs to vote on partygate report
It comes as Mr Sunak faces a potentially acrimonious vote on the committee’s findings on Monday with some Tory MPs uncertain about what to do.
Mr Johnson remains well-liked by party members but polling suggests he is not nearly as popular among the wider electorate.
Although the sanctions proposed by the Tory-majority committee are expected to pass, allies of Mr Johnson warned their colleagues they could face battles with their local parties to remain as candidates at the next election if they back the motion.
In a sign of Tory divisions, former prime minister Liz Truss is among those who have said the punishments recommended by the privileges committee are too harsh, while Conservative MP Anthony Browne has said he will back the report “to stand up in support of our democratic institutions and in support of high standards in public life”.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on how the prime minister will vote when asked on Thursday evening.
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Conservatives ‘consumed with sleaze and infighting’
Sir Ed said that if Mr Sunak were to skip the vote it would confirm “yet again his weakness” and “would be a massive failure if he doesn’t join parliament in holding the former prime minister Boris Johnson to account”.
Beth Rigby analysis:
Johnson verdict a blow to Sunak’s hopes of maintaining peace in the Tory civil war
However, the Lid Dem leader also stressed that while the vote is important, the government should not waste too much parliamentary time on it and instead “pass emergency support for families struggling with soaring mortgage rates”.
He said: “The Conservatives are consumed with sleaze and infighting and are doing nothing to help families who are being overwhelmed by soaring mortgage costs.
“The country is in a cost-of-living emergency. For the Conservatives to devote a whole day to debating this report shows they are even more out-of-touch than we thought.”
