ALISTER Jack is to abstain in the vote today in the Commons on a report into Boris Johnson's conduct in the aftermath of the partygate scandal.

The Scottish Secretary, who is an ally of the former Prime Minister, will not support the conclusions made by members of the privileges committee last week who found that Johnson had committed multiple contempts of parliament.

"He will abstain," Mr Jack’s spokeswoman told The Herald last night.

MPs on the privileges committee found that Johnson deliberately misled the Commons over lockdown breaches in Downing Street at the height of the Covid pandemic .

They also found him in contempt of parliament for “breaching confidence” by effectively making public the committee’s verdict the previous Friday, when he resigned as an MP, as well as for “impugning the committee” and for “being complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee”.

READ MORE: Michael Gove to abstain in vote on Boris Johnson partygate report

Jack's decision to abstain in today’s vote will put him at odds with Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross who said last week he would vote in favour of sanctioning Johnson.

Mr Ross said he would support the recommendations of the privileges committee which recommended Johnson lose his former members’ pass, which allows him limited access to the parliament.

The cross-party group of MPs had also recommended he be suspended for 90 days but the former prime minister quit after being handed an advanced copy of the report.

He denounced the investigation as a “kangaroo court” and later called its conclusion “deranged”.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, will also abstain in the vote, criticising the committee's recommendation that Johnson should have been suspended from parliament for 90 days.

Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Gove was asked if he agreed with the privileges committee that Johnson lied.

"The privileges committee report is pretty clear. But I think there are several things to say here," said Gove.

"The first is that it is Boris's sincere belief that he was assured that the rules were followed. I would invite everyone to read the privileges committee report.

"It draws some important distinctions between Boris's belief, the way in which he sought to assure himself on the facts, and then the views and indeed the testimony of others."

Pressed if he would endorse the report by voting for it, Gove added: "I've read the whole report. There are parts of it that I think are excellent work. I don't agree with the conclusion.

"Personally, I think that the final conclusion the decision to impose a 90 day penalty is not merited by the evidence of the committee's report. I will not vote I will abstain."

Asked what the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will do, he said: "I don't know but I think it's critically important each individual member of the House of Commons forms their own judgement. So I would not wish to influence anyone else.

"My own judgement is the committee have done good work. It is a good report. There are clear areas where the actions of Boris Johnson as a prime minister, fall short of what should have been expected, no doubt about that. And it is appropriate that he faces criticism, he has already forfeited his job as prime minister and left the House of Commons by his own volition."

If the report is not opposed in today's vote then it could just be nodded through the Commons, saving Sunak from having to chose between riling Johnson by backing it, voting against the report and risking public anger, or avoiding the action altogether and facing allegations of being weak.

Mr Ross, who is both an MSP and an MP, last week said he respects the committee’s findings.

“I’m very clear, although it’s a personal choice for all MPs next week, that I will be supporting the recommendations of the committee,” he said.

Asked if he regretted backing the former prime minister, the Scottish Tory leader said “even Boris Johnson’s harshest critics would recognise he had achievements in his time in office”.

The sanctions proposed by the Tory-majority committee are expected to pass regardless, with only a relatively small group of Johnson loyalists expected to oppose the report’s findings.

Mr Johnson was privately urging his supporters not to oppose it, arguing the sanctions have no practical effect.

He hopes to make a political comeback and a return to the Commons.

However, it is unclear if or when that could happen with Sunak unlikely to approve Johnson's as a Tory candidate and many voters across the UK regarding the former PM as a discredited politician.