So today is the day…will any of the Conservative MP’s dare to vote against Boris Johnson in tonight’s debate on the Privileges Committee report ? Or to put it another way will they dare to vote against their membership? I have no idea what happens within each constituency membership but it is widely accepted that Boris Johnson is more popular amongst them than the population as a whole. This means that there may be pressure on Tory MPs not to vote but rather abstain. Here is just one example of doublespeak:

Michael Gove says he will not vote for a report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Partygate.

The housing secretary told the BBC there were areas where the ex-PM “falls short” of expectations. …speaking to BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Gove said a ban of such length – rare in recent years – was “not merited by the evidence the committee have put forward”.

BBC News Website

Not entirely sure what ‘falls short‘ means in this context – other than I’m in a very marginal seat at the moment and I don’t want to upset my core voters or am I being far too cynical?

Again the Prime Minister may not attend the debate nor vote. If he doesn’t vote then he has just kissed goodbye to his premiership as he will have bowed to the ridiculous pressure of Boris Johnson and his new column in the Daily Mail. Good luck with the news cycle when everyone is awaiting Johnson’s opinion. Let us not forget Johnson appears to seriously dislike Rishi Sunak so what advantage is the for Sunak in pandering to Johnson? Yet this is how it will appear if he too doesn’t vote. It will be an open goal for Labour and the Liberal Democrats – just what they want going into at least three winnable by elections to make the very simple claim that Rishi is scared of Boris. It will be very very difficult to argue otherwise if tonight’s vote is most notable by the large number of Tory MPs who are absent.

So will there be many abstentions? Don’t know but the stakes are really high for Sunak and if he blows it then what is left of his authority? Expect memes of ‘tiny’ Sunak next to the growling ‘big beast’ Boris. Margaret Thatcher will be spinning in her grave.