Labour Expected to Table Motion Calling For Probe Into BoJo Partygate Claims

Addressing UK parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered a "wholehearted” apology for attending a lockdown-breaking party in 2020. BoJo is under pressure to step down over the Partygate scandal, which is currently investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

Britain’s Labour Party will table a motion later on Wednesday for a probe by the House of Commons' Privileges Committee into whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled MPs over Partygate­-related claims.

The PM initially insisted that all COVID rules were followed late last year, when allegations of COVID rule-busting parties in Downing Street first surfaced.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle granted a request from opposition MPs, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, for Thursday’s vote on the motion, which will be held at a time when BoJo is scheduled to be away on a visit to India.

Hoyle stressed that it was not for him “to determine whether or not the prime minister has committed a contempt" but rather whether there was "an arguable case to be examined”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged Tory members to “do their patriotic duty” during the upcoming vote, while Labour's Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry underscored that Conservative MPs should "look at their consciences".

Sky News quoted unnamed Labour sources as saying that the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee could ask for documents and photos from civil servant Sue Gray's initial findings on the Partygate scandal, if the motion is passed.

Opposition parties will now have to persuade Tories, who are angry over BoJo’s behavior, to join them in voting for the parliamentary probe. The Times reported in this vein that Johnson purportedly ordered Conservative lawmakers to block the opposition’s push for the probe. The newspaper cited an unnamed Labour source as saying that “any Conservative MP considering voting to block this investigation would be voting for a cover up”.

The development unfold as the UK prime minister offered the House of Commons his "wholehearted apology" on Tuesday after being fined by the Metropolitan Police for taking part in a 2020 Downing Street party during the coronavirus lockdown. BoJo appeared in parliament for the first times since being fined by the Metropolitan Police over attending the 2020 No 10 social gathering.

Johnson admitted that the Britons "had a right to expect better of their prime minister”, adding that “it did not occur” to him “then, or subsequently, that a gathering in the Cabinet room just before a vital meeting on COVID strategy could amount to a breach of the rules”.

Meanwhile former Tory chief whip Mark Harper has told MPs that the PM is unfit for office, shortly after tweeted a letter of no confidence in Johnson to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservatives' 1922 Committee.

“I regret to say that we have a prime minister who broke the laws that he told the country they had to follow, hasn't been straightforward about it and is now going to ask the decent men and women on these benches to defend what I think is indefensible. I’m very sorry to have to say this, but I no longer think he is worthy of the great office that he holds”, Harper stressed.

The PM responded by saying that he “bitterly” regrets what had happened, adding, “[…] I do believe that it is the job of this Government to get on with the priorities of the British people and that is what we are going to do”.

It takes letters of no confidence from 15 per cent Conservative MPs — currently a threshold of 54 — to trigger a vote of no confidence. At least nine Conservative MPs have publicly demanded Boris Johnson's departure so far over the Partygate scandal, sending letters to Brady. Media reports claim the true number of letters stands at between 20 and 40.

If the 54-letter threshold is reached, an announcement will be made by Brady and the vote of no confidence will then be held. If more than 50 per vent of lawmakers say that they want Johnson to remain, he will be immune from another leadership challenge for another year.