Rishi Sunak is the next barrier to integrity in the House of Commons - Yorkshire Post Letters

The Privileges Committee Report debate and vote was long overdue. Boris Johnson misled Parliament knowingly - the Committee produced a great deal of evidence for that and their conclusions should be final.

The visible support finally from Conservatives as well as Opposition Parties was a huge and welcome step forward in regaining trust.

Though huge it was nevertheless only a first step. There is a long road to travel before that task is accomplished. Many Conservative MPs didn’t even bother to turn up.

Of those, many were Ministers who day after day appeared on TV shows repeating the same lies as Johnson. They are still in the House.

They cannot be held to account, but they lied to the British people again and again, and there is no reason to believe that they will stop lying any time soon. How do we address that?Our current PM did not turn up. His absence displays the hollowness of his oft quoted ‘integrity, accountability and transparency’ promise. His abstention leaves unfinished business.

Why abstain - to avoid alienating the many supporters of Johnson in local Conservative groups and the potential impact on the next election?

He chose to follow his political advantage rather than do what was right. He is weak and his promises count for nothing.

He also has lied at the dispatch box multiple times - ‘fastest vaccine roll-out in the world because of our freedoms after leaving the European Union’ (we were still in the EU. The statement has been fully debunked); ‘a record number of new homes built in the last year’ (debunked by FullFact); we will ‘make sure our national debt is falling’ (OBR shows debt rise to 2028).

Sunak is the next barrier to integrity in Parliament and should be the next target.