'Partygate': How John Glen, Danny Kruger and Sir Desmond Swayne voted

It comes after Parliament voted on the report, over whether the former prime minister Boris Johnson had deliberately misled parliament.

354 MPs voted to approve the findings of the cross-party privileges committee but 225 Conservative MPs including the Prime Minister, Salisbury MP John Glen, MP Sir Desmond Swayne and MP Danny Kruger chose not to vote.  

Listen: MP John Glen talks to the Salisbury Journal

The scandal and subsequent investigation which had haunted Boris Johnson’s career in recent years led to his resignation as an MP. He avoided a 90-day suspension as a result but a pass providing him unlimited access to the House of Commons in the future was removed.

John Glen arrives at 10 Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting. (Image: Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

In his column for the Journal, Salisbury MP John Glen said: "To those constituents who have written to accuse me of ‘not being bothered’ to vote, I would say this.

"The committee was properly constituted with cross-party representation, and it did the job it exists to do. It did not require a vote in the House to give its conclusions legitimacy.

"The report should have been nodded through in the usual way, and it was only loud (and extremely disingenuous) objections from Labour MPs that prevented that from happening and forced it to be put to a vote.

"The report’s conclusions stand, irrespective of personal or party allegiances. Therefore, debating it and relitigating the past was nothing more or less than a partisan act of political theatre and it was that I declined to participate in."

MP for New Forest West, Sir Desmond Swayne, also told the Journal: “I well remember the moment that Boris first told the Commons that there were no parties and that rules were not broken.

“That instant a shudder went down my spine because of the seriousness with which misleading the Commons is treated. Not that I believed that he was lying. Rather, I had no doubt that what he considered a ‘party’ would differ from most people’s definition and that he would have a more flexible approach to what constitutes obedience to rules.”

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There were five rules considered broken by Boris Johnson. He was found to have deliberately misled the Commons when he had stated that no Covid rules were broken and that he had been assured no rules were broken.

He was found to have also misled the privileges committee during their investigation when he had repeated the same sentiment and had breached confidence when leaking a part of the report when announcing he was stepping down as an MP.

In addition, the former prime minister was found to have impugned the committee and parliamentary processes and was complicit in the attempted intimation of committee members.

Sir Desmond Swayn said: “Though I reject the conclusions of the Committee. I accept that Boris, through his chaotic management of 10 Downing St. lost the confidence of The Commons and had to stand down as PM. We should have left it at that.”

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MP for Devizes, Danny Kruger stated on his website: "Mr Johnson plainly did misinform Parliament over whether rules were broken in 10 Downing Street. The question, however, is whether he knowingly and intentionally did so; and as I have said all along, that is a high bar to clear.

"It implies we can determine a member’s private knowledge and intentions; that when Mr Johnson told Parliament he had been assured that the gatherings he attended were within the rules, he was deliberately lying.

"So I could not vote for the motion. I didn’t vote against it, either, because the motion could have no effect: Boris is out of Parliament."