Penny Mordaunt: Conservative MPs who abstained on partygate vote are not ‘cowards’

Addressing the House after giving her business statement today, commons leader Penny Mordaunt defended those MPs who abstained on the privileges committee motion from accusations of “cowardice”.

She said: “There have been some [Labour MPs] that have pointed to my colleagues and called them cowards. … Of those Conservative members that abstained or voted against the privileges committee, I can say that 20 of them are veterans.”