The House of Commons voted by 354 votes to 7 to accept the recommendations of the Privileges Committee regarding the conduct of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
This marked the culmination of a huge amount of detailed and conscientious work on this issue by the Committee.
I have greater insight than some into the Committee’s processes as, since October of last year, I have been the Minister designated by the Government to respond to the Committee’s requests and to fulfil the Government’s obligations as the Committee seeks to fulfil the mandate placed on it by the House of Commons.
You may have read about some of the related issues in the national press.
In exercising my judgement in fulfilling my role as Designated Minister I was acting as a Minister fully cognisant of my responsibilities as a Member of Parliament and the mandate placed on the Committee by the House.
I was keen to ensure that in fulfilling the role I acted throughout in a manner that avoided any suggestion that my actions were influenced, one way or the other, by personal views regarding Mr Johnson or the incidents in question.
I therefore took an early decision that if the Committee’s report came to a vote in the Commons I should recuse myself. As a result I did not take part in the division.
The recommendations were carried overwhelmingly and Mr Johnson has already resigned his membership of the House.