Eight Sussex Conservative MPs abstained in the parliamentary vote on a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to Parliament with his denials over Partygate.

A total of 225 Tory MPs did not vote after the report found the former Prime Minister knowingly misled Parliament on several occasions with his statements about gatherings in Number 10 at the height of the pandemic.

Just seven MPs voted against the Privileges Committee’s findings, with 354 voting in favour and endorsing sanctions against Mr Johnson, including banning him from having a pass to access Parliament.

Mr Johnson, who had served as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, quit as an MP after being told in advance of the report’s findings and branded the inquiry a “kangaroo court”.

Among the Sussex MPs who backed the committee’s findings were Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas, Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham Tim Loughton, and Education Secretary and Chichester MP Gillian Keegan.

However, seven Tory MPs from across Sussex abstained - Crawley MP Henry Smith, Bexhill and Battle MP Huw Merriman, Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell, Horsham MP Jeremy Quin, Hastings and Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart, Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith and Wealden MP Nusrat Ghani.

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Ms Ghani said she would have voted in favour of the motion but was attending the Paris Air Show.

“I commend the Privileges Committee for their work which was set up, as were its processes, with full support from the House of Commons," she said.

“I support the findings and recommendations of the Privileges Committee in full and I have made it very clear to my whips that if I had been able to participate, my vote would have approved the Privileges Committee report.”

Hastings MP Sally-Ann Hart also told The Argus she was out of the country at the time of the vote, as she was part of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

She told The Argus she would have "voted to uphold Parliamentary integrity" had she been in Westminster.

How did your MP vote in Parliament?

  • Caroline Ansell (Conservative, Eastbourne) - abstained
  • Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative, Worthing West) - voted in favour
  • Maria Caulfield (Conservative, Lewes) - abstained
  • Mims Davies (Conservative, Mid Sussex) - voted in favour
  • Nick Gibb (Conservative, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) - voted in favour
  • Nusrat Ghani (Conservative, Wealden) - abstained
  • Andrew Griffith (Conservative, Arundel and South Downs) - abstained
  • Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative, Hastings and Rye) - abstained
  • Gillian Keegan (Conservative, Chichester) - voted in favour
  • Peter Kyle (Labour, Hove) - voted in favour
  • Tim Loughton (Conservative, East Worthing and Shoreham) - voted in favour
  • Caroline Lucas (Green, Brighton Pavilion) - voted in favour
  • Huw Merriman (Conservative, Bexhill and Battle) - abstained
  • Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour, Brighton Kemptown) - voted in favour
  • Henry Smith (Conservative, Crawley) - abstained
  • Jeremy Quin (Conservative, Horsham) - abstained

Speaking during the debate yesterday evening, Ms Lucas said: “At last, the truth is being told in this House and the collective gaslighting of a nation is finally over.”

She also called for reforms to strengthen the mechanisms to hold the government to account.

“It is both negligent and dangerous to assume democracy is inevitable, perpetual and unshakeable - it is not,” Ms Lucas said.

“We have to actively and vigilantly defend it, which is why standing together as a Parliament in support of the Privileges Committee’s report is so essential and why it goes beyond just the rogue activities of one particular Member of Parliament.

“We need new mechanisms to call any minister, including a Prime Minister, to account if they deliberately mislead the House.”

Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, said it was incumbent on any MP to apologise when they do something wrong.

He said: “The question facing each of us is: no matter how many good things we have done - the former Prime Minister did many good things - what do we do when we have something wrong?”

Mr Smith, Mr Merriman, Mr Griffith, Mr Quin, Ms Ansell, Ms Caulfield and Ms Hart were all approached for comment.