Boris Johnson’s punishment for repeatedly holding parliament in contempt while prime minister is “overly harsh”, Liz Truss has said.
Mr Johnson’s short-lived successor, whose disastrous budget unleashed a wave of economic chaos, told an audience at a conference: “None of us are perfect”.
A privileges committee investigation into Mr Johnson published last week said the ex-PM should not get the complementary lifetime parliamentary security pass enjoyed by most former MPs.
It accused him of repeatedly misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal and attacking democratic institutions through a strongly-worded resignation statement that branded the inquiry a “witch hunt”.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin on Monday Ms Truss said she would unfortunately not be back in London in time to vote on the report in the House of Commons.
This means she will dodge the politically difficult choice of whether to vote for or against sanctions on Mr Johnson.
Either choice could potentially alienate groups of political supporters, were she ever to attempt to return to front line politics – as has been claimed by some allies.
But asked about the committee’s findings, she said she believed its “judgment was pretty harsh”.
“He himself has said he’s made mistakes, and none of us are perfect,” she said.
“I’m not questing the integrity of the report that parliamentarians have put forward. I think the judgment is pretty harsh, but I’m not questioning the integrity of those people.”
Ms Truss said her predecessor had motivated some people with his vision of Britain and is “not popular among what you might call the sort of ‘elite intelligentsia’ in Britain”.
“So yes, there are legitimate criticisms of Boris, but there are also a group of people who quite like the status quo the way it is, don’t want things to change, didn’t want Brexit, don’t want to see economic reforms.”
She added: “I’m not questioning the integrity of MPs, but I think really the sentence is overly harsh.”
Ms Truss was the UK’s shortest serving prime minister, resigning after just 49 days in the job after her economic policies unleashed turmoil on the financial markets.
Signs the former PM wants another go at the top job include her publication of a 4,000 word essay in the Sunday Telegraph arguing she had been right but not given a fair chance.
