Boris stands down as MP with immediate effect part 3

[DuncinToffee]

Tomorrow is the Commons vote on the Privileges Committee's findings that Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Downing Street parties during lockdown

The vote is a free vote rather than being whipped either way. Tories have been told that the vote will be a one-line whip, meaning they will not be obliged to participate.

Boris Johnson is believed to have advised his backers to not vote against it.

Michael Gove confirmed on live tv that he will abstain

Tobias Elwood has u-turned on abstaining after hearing stories from voters

Rishi Sunak, who knows

And some more about Johnson's honour list, Charlotte Owen

https://twitter.com/CatNeilan/status/1671468292383358976?s=20

Exclusive: Sources dispute Charlotte Owen’s claim to have worked for George Osborne, either directly or at his constituency office

Owen's LinkedIn profile says she interned for him in 2011 and again in Tatton in 2012

I'm told this is not the case

The spokesman for Owen said: “I believe she isn’t saying anything on this one, but anything further isn’t for me.”

He said he no longer spoke for her “or anyone else on the [Johnson resignation honours] list” & didn’t respond when asked how the future baroness could be reached

Doesn’t he also have property in Rwanda?

Re:Rishi, pure personal speculation but I have him firmly pinned as the type to latch onto a popular group by saying all the right things but always standing back from risk taking/trouble but staying close enough for any benefits by association. It’s probably worked well for him up to this point tbf.

He’s not concerned about morality just as long as he has room to distance himself credibly when he needs to.

Carol Vorderman is on the case

https://twitter.com/carolvorders/status/1671527542254190592?s=20

RT
Jacob Rees Mogg has £60m invested in USA company Freeport McMoran (Share code is FCX) whose business includes FRACKING sites.
FACTS
Mogg's hedge fund is Somerset Capital.
Somerset Capital owns 1.8 million shares in FCX
Has he declared this in MPs INTEREST?
Somerset Capital is managed via subsidiaries in the tax havens of the Cayman Islands and Singapore. Less tax to pay!!

I think it's more that Sunak has thus far managed to avoid that being the story. It isn't necessarily something that people have been thinking about full stop.

But that could quite easily change. Johnson for obvious reasons has been the face and focus of Partygate and his own lies to Parliament so far. There's space now for another one, if the issue doesn't go away quickly.

I wonder if there are any more Partygate revelations planned for this weekend? 🤔

Hehe.

It's an interesting point though: we don't know what other material there might be. There's evidently at least one person who chose to sit on incriminating footage for 18 months after the story broke, but for whatever reason has changed their mind now.

It's possible that Sunak, or any other leading Tory really, might be aware that there's more to potentially come. And we don't know what influence that might have on people's behaviour.

I’d be surprised if there wasn’t more. Alongside more revelations. I doubt even the privileges report has got to the bottom of everything that was going on at the time.

What I still can’t figure out is why nobody in the Tory party is inclined to get in front of the story. It’s not like the just lie and pretend it never happened strategy has worked well so far. Every time they do it someone leaks something else and they end up getting damaged by it.

At the moment the only person that’s come out if it well is Allegra Stratton by getting the fuck out if there.

Re further revelations. Might depend on what deal Sunak struck with Johnson. "I'll let you have your honours and not vote on the report - if you leave me alone."

The interesting element is whether there is a 3rd party somewhere keen to pull a few strings.

There will undoubtedly be more at Chequers. We might not get to hear about it but I don't believe for one moment they were having quiet weekends with the kids and a Bamford takeout.

I think we can now all see for sure why they were so confused by Cummings eye test being a problem.

I wondered if he turned up for the meeting, saw the cake and then said "Well this isn't following the risk assessment for working safely in Downing Street"

I wonder how that would have gone down with Johnson?

If I were Carrie, I would be asking some very hard questions right about now.

Wilf Johnson was born at the end of April 2020 - I'm sort of surprised that Carrie would want lots of visitors/socialising around their newborn at Chequers

But who knows maybe she's as gung ho as 'Boris'

I don’t suppose the nanny minded.

I’m not sure they had a risk assessment for working safely in Downing Street.

Which is definitely not something we should let our enemies know about.

Nanny or not - visitors would still potentially be bringing covid into their home

And the reason for 'Boris' going between Downing St and Chequers [when everyone else was told not to travel] was allegedly for Carries safety

I think it all flows from how they initially mishandled it.

There was a failure of leadership to appreciate how big a potential problem they had on their hands in December 2021-January 2022. Bad judgement, but I think also buying into the idea of Johnson the vote winner. They knew from the Cummings affair that being seen to break rules and excuse it was bad for them in the polls, but Johnson's bullshitting and bluster wasn't challenged.

And then after that, they'd missed the window for owning up and being forgiven. So they continued the gamble: because that was the tactic they'd chosen.

Probably the recent video footage has shat a few of them up too. Maybe choices would've been different if they'd clocked that people might keep leaking this far into the future. It's over a year since the last piece of evidence about a breach was leaked, isn't it?

The interesting element is whether there is a 3rd party somewhere keen to pull a few strings

No doubt in my mind. I think part of the compliance with the silence is because a lot of deals have been done. My mind always wanders back to Nad’s completely unveiled threat for MP’s to remember who their donors are when Boris’s pincher mess exploded.

There could be multiple third parties. It wouldn't even have to be done in a skilled or coordinated way.

If they're all starting to turn on each other, which is what happened last time a government knew they faced an utter wipeout, there could be any number of leaks and disclosures of things that have been hanging around a while. Party loyalty and coherence is hard to maintain when MPs don't feel they have skin in the game.

What I still can’t figure out is why nobody in the Tory party is inclined to get in front of the story.

It really is very simple. They don't know what is out there. That's an occupational hazard when you break the law and are corrupt on an industrial scale.

The danger of trying to get in front of the stories is that you let onto something that the press didn't know about before.

What we are seeing is how nature is quite capable of providing balance. We don't need a bunch of soppy twats at the BBC to try and best that.

@Efacsen I don't buy the idea that Mr Johnson would be concerned for any woman's safety. Even with the disagreements with the SPADs and Carrie Johnson.

Didn't someone on one of these threads worry about the baby being kept awake by the ABBA party?

Whoever was worrying, I'm guessing it wasn't Johnson or Mrs Johnson!

Cleverly not ansering how he would vote

https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1671768479152627712?s=20

Sarah-Jane Mee - Why didn't you vote on the privileges committee report?

James Cleverly - "I can't remember what was in my diary at that point in time... that vote was a moot point..."