DOUGLAS Ross has been told to “grow a backbone” and whip his MPs to punish Boris Johnson amid growing splits with the wider Tory party.

The SNP said the Scottish Conservative leader should ensure his MPs supported the damning Commons report which found the former Prime Minister had repeatedly lied to parliament. 

Mr Ross has said he will support the report’s findings into the Partygate affair on Monday, but has insisted he will not instruct his six-strong group in a “free vote”.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, a Johnson loyalist, is seen as the Scots MP least likely to back the report, either by voting against it or abstaining.

The Privileges Committee report said Mr Johnson ought to be suspended from the Commons for 90 days, a sanction he escapes because he resigned as an MP last week.

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However it also recommended denying him the Commons pass routinely given to former MPs which would have an effect.

It was confirmed today that Mr Johnson has been hired by the Daily Mail, apparently on a high six-figure salary, to write a weekly column for it, giving him a platform to protest his innonence and attack his critics.

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

The report has aggravated splits in the Tory party at Westminster, with some of Mr Johnson’s backers refusing to support it and saying any Tory who does ought to be deselected.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has tried to avoid being dragged into the controversy by saying he has yet to read the 108-part verdict on Mr Johnson’s misconduct.

It remains unclear whether he will even take part in Monday’s vote, which has a one-line Tory whip, meaning his party’s MPs are not obliged to attend.

In more evidence of Mr Sunak’s party management problems, Telford MP Lucy Allan announced she would step down at the next election.

The Shropshire town is where Mr Johnson launched his 2019 manifesto, but Ms Allan said: “Today’s Conservative Party is just not interested in seats like Telford anymore.”

SNP Westminster deputy leader Mhairi Black said: "Douglas Ross must finally grow a backbone and whip his MPs to vote for tough sanctions against his disgraced former leader.

"It's well known that Mr Ross lacks authority with Scottish Tory MSPs and MPs, who are discontent with his poor leadership. He might be desperate to avoid a leadership challenge but failing to whip his MPs will only make him look even weaker.

“He must finally do the right thing and get behind SNP calls for tough sanctions - including scrapping Johnson's corrupt honour's list, ending his taxpayer-funded allowance, and recouping his legal fees.”

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “Douglas has made his views clear and will vote in favour of the committee’s findings. As it’s a free vote, it’s up to other MPs how they choose to vote. SNP MPs should look to their own party in Holyrood, where MSPs are being forced to back Nicola Sturgeon.”

The Privileges Committee, which had a Tory majority, found Mr Johnson repeatedly and deliberately misled MPs over Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street.

It said he had “closed his mind to the truth” in repeated contempts of parliament, then compounded his wrongdoing by leaking the provisional findings against him.

His denunciation of the committee which investigated him as a “kangaroo court” and part of a “witch hunt” contributed to it being abused and its “attempted intimidation”.

This latter misconduct led to the recommended sanction of 90 days, far higher than than 10 days which would have triggered a recall byelection had Mr Johnsoon not quit.

It was the first time a former Prime Minister had been found to have lied to parliament.

Mr Johnson attacked the findings yesterday, calling them rubbish, lies and deranged.

He claimed the 14-month investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.

Former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a staunch ally of Mr Johnson, said the 90-days was “vindictive” and may have “helped his return, rather than hindered it”.

He predicted Mr Sunak “will abstain on the basis that it is a parliamentary matter”.

The Herald:

Former de facto Prime Minister Damian Green told BBC Radio 4 that “deliberately abstaining is not really rising to the importance of the occasion” and he would 

He would vote to approve the report with a “heavy heart”, he said.

Mr Johnson’s exit from Parliament leaves Mr Sunak facing a tough byelection in Uxbridge and South Ruislip on July 20, with Labour hopeful of gaining the west London seat.

Another by-election on the same day, triggered by Tory Nigel Adams who was denied a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, takes place in safer Selby and Ainsty.

Former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, who U-turned on her resignation, warned that any Tory MPs who endorsed the Privileges Committee’s report were not “true Conservatives”.

They would be “held to account by members and the public” and “deselections may follow”. 

Former MEP David Campbell Bannerman said: “Any Tory MP who endorses this report does not respect democracy and must face deselection.”

Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt called for calm, saying “all of us must do what we think is right and others must leave us alone to do so”.

Downing Street said Mr Sunak would “take the time to fully consider the report”, but officials were unable to say whether he would take part in Monday’s vote.

Cabinet minister David Davies said he believed the report had killed off Mr Johnson’s hopes for a political comeback.

Asked if Mr Johnson’s career was now over, the Welsh Secretary told BBC’s Question Time last night: “I think it probably is. I’m not saying whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t really see any way back for Boris.”

Sir Jake Berry, a former Tory party chairman who is a close ally of Mr Johnson, said he was “almost certain that Parliament will vote in favour” of the report.

But he told ITV he would “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.”

The Privileges Committee looked into whether Mr Johnson, who was fined for breaking lockdown rules, misled parliament when he denied knowledge of parties in Downing Street and insisted all social distancing guidance had been followed.

The Committee concluded many aspects of Mr Johnson’s defence were “not credible”, allowing them to conclude he “intended to mislead” MPs.

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They dismissed Mr Johnson’s argument that mid-pandemic staff leaving dos in Downing Street were essential to maintain staff morale, noting they attracted police fines while the rules would have been clear to him.

“A workplace ‘thank you’, leaving drink, birthday celebration or motivational event is obviously neither essential or reasonably necessary,” the MPs wrote.

“That belief, which he continues to assert, has no reasonable basis in the rules or on the facts.”

The committee said his public criticism was a “cynical attempt to manipulate” the opinions of MPs and the public.

Mr Johnson claimed almost £250,000 in public money to hire lawyers to help his defence during the Committee’s investigation while earning around £6million from speaking fees.

The Liberal Democrats have called for him to lose the £115,000 annual office allowance available to former prime ministers.