Yahoo News Boris Johnson Steps Down As Member Of Parliament With Immediate Effect Over Partygate Findings
Controversial former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he is stepping down as a Member of Parliament with immediate effect.
He made the stunning announcement after receiving the findings of an investigation into whether he knowingly misled Parliament over the so-called Partygate scandal, in which he and his staff were accused of wantonly breaking social distancing rules during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The Privileges Committee of the House of Commons is reported to have found him guilty and recommended he be suspended for more than 10 days.
Johnson suggested he was being hounded out of parliament in his bombshell resignation letter on Friday evening.
“I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament,” he wrote.
“They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons… Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.
Johnson said he had no choice but to resign.
“I have today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election,” he said.
Johnson had been an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from May 2015 to June 2023. Prior to that, he was MP for Henley from June 2001 to June 2008.
Political pundits went into overdrive following the news, chewing over what the move meant for Johnson’s long-term political career as well as the Conservative Party and the government of current PM Rishi Sunak.
Sky’s deputy political editor Sam Coates suggested it meant the end of the road for Johnson.
“Today’s decision is less about taking a public stand, and more a recognition he is never ‘coming back’ and doesn’t have the support in Parliament even to make causing trouble fun…he has voted to leave: to preserve the myth, and not put it to the test with reality,” he wrote.
London’s Metropolitan Police handed out a total of 126 fines to Conservative Party staff in May 2022, following an inquiry into lockdown breaches in the government’s Downing Street H.Q from May 2020 to April 2021, including a birthday party for Johnson in the cabinet room.
The revelations about the gatherings and parties sparked anger in the UK where much of the population adhered to the lockdown rules, which prevented people from seeing family and friends.
News of Johnson’s resignation came just hours after his former Culture Minister Nadine Dorries, who was one his most loyal allies during his premiership, announced she was resigning as an MP.
Dorries did not give a precise reason for her departure but local media suggested it was because she had not been approved for Johnson’s requested Prime Ministerial Resignation Honors list.
The list, which is a privilege of outgoing UK prime ministers, was unveiled today and featured peerages and rewards for a raft of Johnson’s key allies, including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel.
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