Boris Johnson will certainly be back, writes JASON GROVES

Boris Johnson’s detractors were quick to dance on what they hope will be his political grave…but he will certainly be back, writes JASON GROVES

Boris Johnson’s detractors were quick to dance on what they hope will be his political grave today.

Within minutes of the publication of the Commons privileges committee, former attorney general Dominic Grieve – who was booted out of the party for opposing Brexit – popped up on TV to declare that the former prime minister was now ‘gone for good’.

Fellow Remainer and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine was next up, saying it was time to revisit Brexit as Mr Johnson had told ‘a pack of lies’.

Certainly the report was damning.

The seven-strong committee found that Mr Johnson had deliberately lied to parliament when he said lockdown gatherings in Downing Street did not break Covid rules.

Boris Johnson delivers his final speech outside No 10 on September 6 2022 as he left No 10 for good 

A smiling Angela Rayner, deputy leader of Labour smiles as she reacts to the publication of the Commons privileges committee

The 90-day suspension is the second longest handed out since the Second World War. The recommendation that Mr Johnson be stripped of his Commons pass is designed as a permanent reminder to him of the committee’s anger.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson’s allies warn Tory MPs they face DESELECTION by furious activists if they back brutal Partygate report finding the ex-PM lied and deserved a 90-DAY suspension 

The findings may not be fatal but they damage any chance an early comeback. Mr Johnson will not be returning to parliament before the next election. It is doubtful that Rishi Sunak would let him stand as a candidate even if he wanted to.

Mr Johnson described the findings as ‘complete tripe’, and said it central conclusion that he set out to mislead parliament was ‘a lie’.

But the uneasy feeling that the hounding of the former PM has been excessive extends beyond his immediate allies.

The inquiry was established in April last year at the height of the efforts to force the then Prime Minister from office.

Continuing to pursue it long after his resignation from the highest office in the land will look petty and vindictive to many.

And, despite the strength of its conclusions, the committee uncovered little in the way of new evidence.

It’s finding that he lied – and the 90-day suspension that came with it – was based on ‘the balance of probabilities’.

Putting the worst possible gloss on the evidence, MPs found it was ‘highly unlikely’ he could have really believed he was telling the truth when he offered reassurances to parliament about Partygate.

What is more, there have been questions from the start about whether the committee approached the issue with a genuinely open mind.

Miss Harman, for example, tweeted in April last year that Mr Johnson’s failure to challenge a police fine over a so-called ‘birthday party’ in No 10 meant he was ‘also admitting (he) misled the House of Commons’.

Mr Johnson said senior Tory Sir Bernard Jenkin had a ‘personal antipathy to me that was historic and well-known’. Yesterday Sir Bernard faced accusations of hypocrisy over reports that he attended a lockdown drinks party himself.

Boris’ supporters are angry that Rishi Sunak has refused to block the report

There is no doubt that Tory whips took their eye off the ball last year when they allowed the Commons motion establishing the inquiry to sail through without a vote – and when they permitted Miss Harman to take the chair.

Mr Johnson today said he initially viewed the inquiry as a ‘time-wasting procedural stunt by the Labour Party’.

Boris Johnson Partygate report – key points:

• The Privileges Committee said that if he had not resigned last week Mr Johnson should have been suspended from the Commons for 90 days
• The Privileges Committee said Boris Johnson committed a ‘serious contempt of the House’ through his Partygate denials. 
• That section would have taken into account his attacks on the committee as a ‘kangaroo court’ in recent days
• Only Keith Vaz, the Labour MP who was banned for six months over a drug-fuelled gathering with male prostitutes’, has been barred for longer
• The Committee suggested Mr Johnson should be barred from having a parliamentary pass, which is normally available to former MPs.

His supporters are angry that Rishi Sunak has refused to block the report. No 10 confirmed today that MPs will get a free vote on its findings on Monday. Sources suggested that Mr Sunak may duck the vote entirely.

Allies of the PM suggest that even if he had been sympathetic to Mr Johnson’s cause, there was little he could have done. A previous attempt by Mr Johnson to help the former environment secretary Owen Paterson to escape censure backfired spectacularly.

But the perception that Mr Sunak was unwilling to lift a finger to help, coupled with anger over the handling of Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, has fuelled suspicions that he wants to destroy his rival, and risks triggering a new civil war in Tory ranks.

Nadine Dorries warned today that any Conservative MP who backs the vote in Monday night’s vote risks deselection by their local party.

‘Any Conservative MP who would vote for this report is fundamentally not a Conservative and will be held to account,’ she declared ominously.

Mr Johnson is understandably furious today, describing the committee’s findings as ‘deranged’.

He knows that the committee’s findings cannot be challenged in a court of law. But it is also not the end of the road.

Friends believe that, once the vote has been held on Monday he will allow the dust to settle – for now – and focus on his family, his finances and his memoirs.

‘He is not about to start a long-term war with Rishi,’ said one. ‘He wants to hang up his hat for a bit and see how things play out.’

But allies also believe that today’s findings are so one-sided and unfair that they could one day even prove to be the foundation for his political return.

‘They are making a martyr of him,’ said one friend. ‘The findings are so extreme that it is easy to imagine how he might one day wave them around at a Tory leadership hustings and say, “How much must my political enemies fear me to have done this?”’

Mr Johnson’s enemies are gloating today. But they would be wrong to assume that even this attempt at political assassination will kill him off for good.

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