Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned as a MP.
He has issued a statement saying that he will be triggering an immediate by-election, making the decision shortly after receiving the Partygate report from the the Privileges Committee’s investigation on whether he misled Parliament.
He said: “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.
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“I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as mayor and MP.”
He added: “It is very sad to be leaving parliament, at least for now, but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.”
He also used his resignation statement to deliver a stinging attack on Rishi Sunak’s Government.
“When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened,” he said.
The announcement, coming only hours after his resignation honours list had been published, means the Conservatives are likely to face a tough battle to hold onto the London seat at a by-election.
It was the second by-election triggered on Friday following former culture secretary Nadine Dorries’ decision to quit the Commons immediately, rather than wait until the next election.
The Privileges Committee has been investigating whether Mr Johnson misled MPs when he assured them that coronavirus>Covid rules were followed in No 10 following allegations of lockdown-busting parties.
In a scathing attack, he accused the committee of producing a yet-to-be-published report “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice” while providing him with “no formal ability to challenge anything they say”.
He said the panel of MPs had “still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons”.
But he said he thought their “purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.
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