Harrogate MP elected to 1922 committee executive

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has been elected to the Conservative Party’s 1922 committee executive.

Mr Jones joins the 12 member executive, which announced its election results last night.

Sir Graham Brady remains chairman of the committee.

The committee is made up of backbench Conservative MPs and represents the views of the parliamentary party.

It is also influential in electing leaders of the party, including setting the rules for leadership contests.

The move to elect the executive comes as the party is in the middle of choosing a new leader after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he would step down in the autumn.

Eleven MPs, including former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, current Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, have so far announced they will stand for party leader.

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Mr Jones’ election to the executive comes as he has been openly critical of Mr Johnson in the last few months.

Ahead of the Mr Johnson’s resignation, he said he felt “we have come to the end of the road with this Prime Minister”.

He also voted against him in a confidence vote.

However, Mr Jones has yet to publicly announce his support for a candidate in the leadership election.

Andrew Jones MP to vote against Boris Johnson tonight

Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones has said he will vote against Prime Minister Boris Johnson in tonight’s confidence vote.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs, confirmed this morning that a ballot will be held at 6pm today.

The move comes as the threshold of 15% of the parliamentary Conservative party seeking a vote of confidence in Mr Johnson was met. He will need the support of 180 MPs this evening to remain as PM.

In a statement published in various media outlets, the MP said he will not be supporting the PM due to the partygate scandal.

The MP said he has received emails from “hundreds of people” in Harrogate and Knaresborough, with most of them calling for the PM to resign.

The statement said:

“There were many harrowing stories in those emails where people couldn’t visit elderly relatives or mourn them at their funerals. These were people following the rules the Prime Minister set and championed.”

The Stray Ferret has asked Mr Jones for a copy of the statement but we did not receive a response.

The statement in full is below:

Credit – Yorkshire Post

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Andrew Jones MP tells constituent he feels ‘anger’ over partygate

Harrogate & Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones has told a constituent that he feels “anger” over partygate — but would not say whether he has submitted a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The long-awaited Sue Gray report was published last week and found that many of the parties in Downing Street “should not have been allowed to happen”.

The report included details of vomiting and parties lasting until 4am while the UK was under covid restrictions.

Following the publication of the report, a constituent wrote to Mr Jones. The MP responded in a letter on May 27 with his thoughts on the subject.

The constituent asked not to be named, but shared the letter with the Stray Ferret.

Mr Jones wrote:

“I understand the anger people feel. I feel it too. Most of all I feel intensely depressed that senior people in our political system have pretended, or somehow genuinely believed, that tables groaning with bottles of wine, as we have now seen pictured, were in some way allowed work practices.”

Mr Jones has previously been outspoken over partygate and said in the letter that his “anger is not going to lessen”.

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In January, the MP wrote to a different constituent to say if criminal actions were found then “consequences must flow from that”.

In April, the Prime Minister was given a fixed penalty notice for attending a birthday gathering on June 20, 2020. It made him the first Prime Minister to have been found to have broken the law while in office.

However, the letter suggests that Mr Jones now considers the case closed.

He wrote:

“My anger isn’t going to lessen and I am not going to forget this episode in the story of Covid-19. But I won’t be commenting again unless something substantially new comes to light having already responded to hundreds and hundreds of emails and letters on every aspect of this matter.”

The BBC has reported at least 20 Tory MPs have written to the 1922 committee of backbenchers with letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Fifty-four letters are needed to trigger a leadership vote, but Mr Jones would not reveal if he has submitted one, writing:

“This is a matter that will remain between myself and the chair of the 1922 committee.”

The Stray Ferret has asked Mr Jones for his views following the publication of the Sue Gray report, but has not received a response.

Downing Street parties: Harrogate MP says ‘lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers’

Harrogate MP Andrew Jones has told a constituent that “lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers” after Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted attending a party during the first coronavirus lockdown.

In the letter to a constituent, who shared the contents with the Stray Ferret but did not want to be named, Mr Jones said he had received a lot of letters and emails about the issue.

The Stray Ferret has asked Mr Jones multiple times for his response to reports of the Downing Street parties since the story broke in December. He has never responded.

The Conservative backbencher called in Parliament for Sue Gray to complete her investigation and share the results as soon as possible. But this is the first time he has criticised Boris Johnson’s handling of the matter.

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He said in his letter:

“I followed coronavirus restrictions. I take the maxim ‘lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers’ seriously.

“Like most I could not see my family, I could not meet with colleagues and I most certainly could not socialise with friends.

“My office team were all working from home and there was no mixing between us at all during work, let alone after work with alcohol.

“It is therefore frustrating to have been put in a position of waiting for the Prime Minister to account for exactly what occurred.”

Mr Jones said he could not understand “why it took so long and was so difficult to answer the direct question: ‘Were you at an event on such-and-such a date?'”

However, he said he felt the Prime Minister’s statement on the May 20 party was “clear”. But, he goes on to add:

“His [The Prime Minister’s] apology was necessary and welcome, but I do not think this closes the matter. There are many more questions, some as a consequence of his statement.

“In respect of the investigation announced by the Prime Minister in December, if this finds wrongdoing, and the police find that these actions were criminal, then consequences must flow from that.”

Mr Jones also added that he has discussed the matter with the party whips and the chair of the government’s backbench committee, also known as the 1922 Committee.