Boris the liar ‘to get new Daily Mail column’ days after damning Partygate report

Boris Johnson is rumoured to be unveiled as the Daily Mail’s “erudite” new columnist days after quitting as an MP.

The disgraced former prime minister is believed to be the blacked out silhouette on the paper’s front page who will write for it weekly starting tomorrow.

The Mail promises Mr Johnson’s column will be “required reading” in Westminster and around the world. It is paying a “very high six-figure sum”, Politico reported.

It would be a big step up from the former PM’s £275,000 salary as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Johnson is expected to take swipes at his successor Rishi Sunak, with the relationship between the two having descended into open warfare last week.

In a row over the former PM’s resignation honours list, Mr Johnson publicly accused his successor of “talking rubbish”.

Mr Sunak has denied “wielding the dagger” against Mr Johnson with his resignation as chancellor last July, a move which was seen as the beginning of the end of Mr Johnson’s premiership. He resigned just two days later.

Theresa May’s former deputy PM said it will be “quite difficult” for Boris Johnson to return as a Tory candidate for the Commons in the future.

He added: “What I feel particularly sad about is the response he has made.

“I think if he had been more temperate in his response it would be easier for him to have a way back into active politics, but he’s chosen to use phrases like ‘kangaroo court’ and ‘witch hunt’ and described the report as ‘deranged’.”

The fallout from a scathing report which found Boris Johnson lied to MPs over partygate has left Rishi Sunak with a battle to hold his warring Tory party together.

The Commons will vote on Monday on the Privileges Committee’s report, which recommended that Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension had he not already resigned in advance of its judgment and be banned from holding a pass to access Parliament.

MPs will be given a free vote, but allies of Mr Johnson warned Tories they could face battles with their local parties to remain as candidates at the next election if they back the motion.

The sanctions proposed by the Tory-majority committee are expected to pass, with only a relatively small group of Johnson loyalists set to oppose the report’s findings, although many more Conservatives could simply not turn up.

Liz Truss, who spent 49 days as prime minister after succeeding Mr Johnson as Tory leader, told GB News that preventing him holding a parliamentary pass would be a “very harsh decision”.

But she is not expected to vote on the report, with a source close to the MP pointing to her speaking at an event in Dublin on Monday morning.

Downing Street is yet to say whether the Prime Minister will vote.

Boris Johnson is said to be considering an audacious independent bid to become London mayor for a second time after his exit from parliament and dramatic fall from grace in the Tory party.

The former prime minister is weighing up his next moves after sealed in a damning report that found he deliberately and repeatedly lied to the Commons over Partygate.

Mr Johnson is thought to have agreed a “high six-figure sum” with the Daily Mail to pen a weekly column, with the newspaper teasing that its “mystery” new writer will be “required reading in Westminster – and across the world!”

And the Financial Times has reported that Mr Johnson could look to get his old job back in City Hall by running as an independent candidate to defeat Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.

Sir Rod Stewart has explained why he is “still a bit of a fan” of Boris Johnson despite the former prime minister’s very public exposure as a liar.

The “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” singer shared his views on Mr Johnson after a report found that he repeatedly misled Parliament about gatherings in Downing Street during lockdown.

With a historic majority and the full support of his party, the former PM had all the political momentum in the world. So how did he manage to squander it? Andrew Grice explains

Boris Johnson always wanted to be a history maker. “No one puts up statues to journalists,” he once said. He constantly invited comparisons with Winston Churchill, who led the UK through the Second World War.

When Johnson wrote a book about his hero, The Churchill Factor, it was as much about his own ambition and desire to emulate him. Although Johnson’s finest hour came during the next war on European soil – in the strong, decisive leadership he showed on Ukraine – it was eclipsed by a series of self-inflicted disasters that stemmed from the fatal flaws that made him unfit to be prime minister.

It is an “absolute disgrace” that the Privileges Committee threatened MPs who criticised its report on Boris Johnson, the former chairman of the Conservative Party has said, accusing the panel of seeking to “gag MPs”.

Sir Jake Berry, an ally of the former prime minister, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “For the first time in my parliamentary career, I’m afraid to talk about a report or the findings of a committee of Parliament, because they have threatened MPs that if they do so, they themselves will be subject to the sorts of sanctions.

“It’s an attack on free speech. It’s an absolute disgrace and it rather begs the question that if the committee is so certain and so happy with their findings, why are they trying to stop any debate on this, to gag MPs and prevent them talking about it.”

He said he was “almost certain that Parliament will vote in favour” of the report on Monday, but that he will “certainly be one of those in the no lobby opposing this report, because I think both the conclusions and, to some extent, the way the committee was made up in terms of this report are wrong.”

Senior Conservative MP Damian Green said abstaining from the vote to approve the damning report into Boris Johnson on Monday would not be rising to the occasion.

Asked if Rishi Sunak must take part, the former de facto deputy prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Every individual will make up their own mind obviously.

“I think personally it’s such an important act that deliberately abstaining is not really rising to the importance of the occasion.”

He said if the Prime Minister does not take part it shows he is “the busiest”, adding: “It’s not for me to tell him how to behave in this sort of situation.”

Mr Green said he intends to vote to approve the report with a “heavy heart”.

Theresa May’s former deputy also said it will be “quite difficult” for Boris Johnson to return as a Tory candidate for the Commons in the future.

He added: “What I feel particularly sad about is the response he has made.

“I think if he had been more temperate in his response it would be easier for him to have a way back into active politics, but he’s chosen to use phrases like ‘kangaroo court’ and ‘witch hunt’ and described the report as ‘deranged’.”

Boris Johnson will host a foreign leader on Monday, meaning he may be too busy to attend a Commons vote on the report into Boris Johnson’s Partygate lies, the Telegraph reported.

Tory MPs are torn over whether to approve the “damning” Partygate report over the former prime minister’s conduct.

Many cabinet ministers are expected to skip the vote, while No10 has refused to say if Mr Sunak will attend.

Missing the would raise questions about Mr Sunak’s commitment to integrity in public life, while supporting it would risk stoking anger among Boris allies, who have warned those endorsing the report they could face de-selection as Conservative MPs.

Boris Johnson allies have vowed they will target Conservative members who endorse the Privileges Committee’s report for deselection.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries was among the first to condemn the report, calling it “quite bizarre”.

She warned that any Tory MPs who endorsed the Privileges Committee’s report on Monday were not “true Conservatives” and would be “held to account by members and the public”.

“Deselections may follow. It’s serious,” she said.