Abstain

Abstaining in a free vote in Parliament is a cop out. Yet at the vote on the Commons Privileges Committee’s report into Boris Johnson and his statements to the house on Partygate, over 100 Tory members did just that.

In the end it made no difference. The report had found that Johnson repeatedly misled parliament about lockdown parties at Downing Street and was carried by 354 votes for the motion and only 7 against. 

This means that 289 members didn’t vote and that at least 150 weren’t in the chamber at all.

Why is it a cop out? This vote wasn’t whipped, each Member of Parliament was free to make whatever choice they felt was appropriate, unlike in a whipped vote where to defy the party in government, if you are on its side, can be career defining. 

Abstaining in this case leaves the door wide open and leaves people puzzled as to where their MP sits. An abstention can mean that the MP doesn’t agree with the motion, then why not vote against it? It could mean that they do agree with it but think it’s bad form to castigate a former Prime Minister, or it could mean that they don’t agree with the whole process and again, why not vote against it? Nobody will ever know their reason.

Abstaining may seem like spoiling your ballot paper and in a way it has the same effect. Rather than nulling your vote it actually adds to the other votes that are cast. As it stands, this government under our First Past the Post system, has a majority of 59 in Parliament. Any abstention, reduces this majority and, in effect, adds votes to the opposition. Abstaining from a government backed vote can be bad news for the party in charge, hence the whip.

The vote is done now and the result is absolutely clear. Johnson is on record as having deliberately misled and lied to the house. There is no surprise here, other than how long it took to come to such a conclusion.

What is not known is what the members who weren’t there or abstained thought about it. This was an important and unprecedented vote in the Commons. Those who didn’t cast their vote one way or another have copped out.