Mundell won’t take part in vote

The debate was tabled by the Labour Party after prime minister Boris Johnson was forced to apologise once again after he, along with chancellor Rishi Sunak and Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie were fined by police for attending one of the parties being investigated.

This morning, it’s been revealed that Mr Johnson’s Government hopes to delay the debate until the police have concluded their investigations into more No10 gatherings, at least two of which the prime minister is known to have attended.

If the debate does go ahead, one MP who won’t be there for the vote is Tweeddale's David Mundell.

He told The Southern yesterday: “I won’t be present for the vote on Thursday since I am scheduled to be in Washington DC that day, as part of a cross-party delegation of MPs and others, including representatives of the SNP, LibDems and Labour party, meeting with the World Bank and other key international development and global health institutions.

“This is in connection with my chairmanship of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nutrition, the aim of which is to support and challenge the UK government to maintain a leadership role on improving global nutrition.”

The region’s other Borders MP, John Lamont, said yesterday: “People are rightly angry about the events in Downing Street during the lockdown. It is right that the police have held him to account on this.

"The motion and amendments for debate tomorrow have yet to be published but I will consider these when they are."

However, Mr Lamont has previously said he could not believe anyone who was at one of these gatherings could have thought it was within the rules.

Although he has also said he didn’t think the time was right for Mr Johnson to go, due to the Ukraine crisis.