MPS voted overwhelmingly to back a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to Parliament with his partygate denials on Monday – and Gwent’s representatives were among them.

Just seven MPs voted against the Privileges Committee’s findings, in a humiliating defeat for the former prime minister less than a year after he left No 10.

With 354 votes in favour, MPs endorsed sanctions against Mr Johnson recommended by the committee, including banning him from having a pass to access Parliament, which is usually available to former MPs.

The Tory-majority panel also concluded that Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension for misleading the House when he told the Commons that Covid rules were obeyed in No 10 despite parties taking place.

Conservative MPs were given a free vote, with 118 backing the report and the majority opting to stay away, including the prime minister.

How Gwent's MPs voted on the partygate report

  • Wayne Davies, Caerphilly, Labour: For;
  • David Davies, Monmouth, Conservative: For;
  • Chris Evans, Islwyn, Labour: For;
  • Ruth Jones, Nepwort West, Labour: Did not vote;
  • Jessica Morden, Newport East: For;
  • Nick Smith, Blaenau Gwent, Labour: For;
  • Nick Thomas-Symonds, Torfaen, Labour: For.

Newport West MP Ruth Jones, also Labour, said she would have voted for it, but was unable to attend the vote.

Writing on Twitter on Monday afternoon she said: "Unfortunately due to other Parliamentary commitments, I will be unable to attend today's vote on Privileges Committee report and the sanctioning of Boris Johnson.

"Needless to say, following years of his disgraceful conduct and after reading the extensive final report, I would have voted in favour of it. For years now, Johnson's conduct has made a mockery of our Parliament and the reckoning he has received is long overdue.

"It says it all that the current Prime Minister is too weak to stand up for Parliament and vote in favour of the report, change cannot come soon enough."

Prime minister Rishi Sunak was accused of “a cowardly cop-out” for refusing to take part in the vote, but had insisted he did not want to “influence” how MPs might vote.

Mr Johnson was censured in his absence, having quit as an MP and labelled the inquiry a “kangaroo court” after being told in advance of its findings.

Branding him the first former prime minister to have lied to the Commons, the Privileges Committee found Mr Johnson committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament by deliberately misleading MPs over lockdown-busting parties before being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation.

The ex-premier had urged his allies not to oppose the report, arguing that the sanctions had no practical effect, although critics said it was a move designed to avoid revealing the low level of remaining support for him among Tory MPs.

The vote followed several hours of debate, during which Tory and opposition MPs delivered a series of blistering speeches in which Mr Johnson was criticised as a “man child who won’t see that he only has himself to blame” and defended as “a human too”.

As the debate went on, Mr Johnson, who turned 59 on Monday, was reportedly speaking at an event for the International Democratic Union in London.

Earlier in the day, it was not clear whether there would be a vote, but ultimately Labour forced one.

The seven who voted against it included senior backbencher Sir Bill Cash and Nick Fletcher, who during the earlier debate urged MPs to remember Mr Johnson was “human” and that he “nearly died” during the pandemic.