UEA political expert: "Rishi Sunak faces challenge of holding his party together"
MPs vote later on whether to accept the Privileges Committee's report into Boris Johnson
Last updated 19th Jun 2023
A political expert in the East tells us that Rishi Sunak today faces the challenge of holding his party together.
It's as MPs will vote later on whether to accept the Privileges Committee's report - which found Boris Johnson knowingly misled the Commons over lockdown gatherings.
"It will also be a dispute about how Parliament works"
Professor Alan Finalyson works at the University of East Anglia in Norfolk.
He says the Prime Minister is facing quite the headache:
"He looks weak if he lets people get away with opposing the Government line. What we might see is a large number of abstentions and maybe they'll think that'll save face for everybody- 'people just couldn't make it to the house that day'.
"Sunak can say most Conservatives voted for it, rebels can say it wasn't full support- maybe we'll get a fudge like that.
"There will be members of the party in Parliament who will seek to criticise the committee and weaken the findings of the report.
"That will spark disagreement, and that will not just be a dispute caused between those who support Johnson and those who don't, it will also be a dispute about how Parliament works."
Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove has already announced he'll abstain on the vote.
"Possibly some rhetorical fireworks"
Professor Finlayson continued: "The accusation is that the House of Commons itself has been misled by the Prime Minister.
"So a lot of Conservative MPs are very angry about that and feel that Parliament and it's reputation has been undermined.
"So they will be wanting to make a clear statement not only to Boris Johnson, but to any MP, that there are rules of the house that have to be followed.
"Some considerable division in the Conservative Party will be revealed, and therefore there'll possibly be some rhetorical fireworks in the debate.
"As we have already seen Boris Johnson is suggesting that the findings of the committee are being made because of some political bias within the membership."