Following a report on whether former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied when he assured Parliament that his government had adhered to the rules imposed to contain Covid, MPs have been suspended with immediate effect. He announced his resignation on Friday. There were parties in Downing Street.
“It’s very sad to leave Parliament – at least for now,” Boris Johnson said in a statement. “By a small group, with no evidence to support their allegations, and without the approval of members of the Conservative Party, I am being forced to stand aside by the general electorate.”
The matter is being probed by Parliament’s Privileges Committee, from whom the former prime minister said he had received a briefing. “I am very surprised that they have said that they are determined to remove me from Parliament by using the procedures against me,” he alleged.
If it had concluded that Johnson had negligently or deliberately misled Parliament, the committee could have recommended that he be suspended from Parliament for no more than ten days.
Johnson’s tenure as prime minister was cut short in part by anger in his own party and across the country at the parties in his office and Downing Street home. Johnson was accused of knowing about the parties and still assuring parliament that distancing and isolation rules had been followed.
Johnson accused the committee of being unbiased, saying “most committee members have made deeply damaging comments about my guilt before they’ve even seen the evidence.”
“In retrospect, I don’t think the process was remotely helpful or fair.”
Johnson used his statement to attack the current prime minister, the conservative Rishi Sunak. “When I left office last year, the government was trailing by half a dozen points in the polls. That gap has widened.
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