After Nigel Adams and fellow Tory Boris Johnson both resigned, two by-elections will be held on July 20.
Both Adams’ Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire and Johnon’s former district of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London will hold elections.
After getting a copy of a report from the MP-led Privileges Committee probing whether he had lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 outbreak, Johnson abruptly resigned from his position.
Two of his closest allies, Nadine Dories and Adams, walked out the door with him, presenting the scandal-scarred Tory party with three electoral tests.
Having read the findings ahead of public release, Johnson last Friday accused the committee of attempting to drive him out of office.
‘They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons,’ he said in his resignation letter.
The Privileges Committee saw otherwise. In a 108-page document, MPs accused Johnson of being in ‘serious contempt’ by repeatedly and deliberately misleading Parliament.
‘The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government,’ the report said.
‘There is no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.’
‘He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public,’ MPs added, ‘and did so repeatedly.’
Given that Johnson stood down, his punishments were limited.
The committee would have recommended he be banned from Parliament for 90 days – one of the most serve sanctions.
Instead, the committee recommended that the former PM’s parliamentary pass be toen up, meaning he can’t just swing by Parliament like he once could.
And by quitting as an MP, Johnson saved himself from any humiliation if he lost his parliamentary seat in a by-election.