How Northern Ireland MPs voted on damning report on Boris Johnson's partygate lies

MPs voted overwhelmingly to back a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to Parliament with his partygate denials, as Rishi Sunak stayed away from proceedings.

Just seven MPs voted against the Privileges Committee's findings, in a humiliating defeat for the former prime minister less than a year after he left No 10.

With 354 votes in favour, MPs endorsed sanctions against Mr Johnson recommended by the committee, including banning him from having a pass to access Parliament, which is usually available to former MPs.

SDLP MPs Colum Eastwood and Claire Hanna, along with Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry, voted in favour of the reports findings.

Meanwhile, all eight DUP MPs abstained. The party has been asked for a comment.

Sinn Féin MPs also abstained, however, they do not take their seats.

The Tory-majority panel also concluded that Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension for misleading the House when he told the Commons that Covid rules were obeyed in No 10 despite parties taking place.

Branding him the first former prime minister to have lied to the Commons, the Privileges Committee found Mr Johnson committed "repeated contempts" of Parliament by deliberately misleading MPs over lockdown-busting parties before being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation.

The ex-premier had urged his allies not to oppose the report, arguing that the sanctions had no practical effect, although critics said it was a move designed to avoid revealing the low level of remaining support for him among Tory MPs.

The vote followed several hours of debate, during which Tory and opposition MPs delivered a series of blistering speeches in which Mr Johnson was criticised as a "man child who won't see that he only has himself to blame" and defended as "a human too".

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