Boris Johnson resigns as MP, blaming ‘anti-democratic’ privileges committee
In a surprising move, Boris Johnson has resigned as an MP, citing the Privileges Committee’s investigation into his statements about Downing Street parties as the reason for his departure. He accused the committee, chaired by Harriet Harman, of showing “egregious bias” and using the proceedings against him to drive him out of parliament.
The cross-party Commons committee, which began its investigation into Johnson in June, has been examining whether he misled MPs with his statements claiming that all COVID rules and guidance were followed by Number 10 during lockdown gatherings. The former prime minister, who is the only person to have given public evidence, had sworn on a bible to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”
During the March evidence session, Johnson insisted that he did not lie to the House and that he believed the events he attended were “absolutely essential for work purposes.” He also claimed that those who said the events were purely social gatherings were “quite wrong.” However, Harman was unimpressed by Johnson’s claims, calling the assurances he received from senior staff that the gatherings were not breaking the rules “flimsy.”
Following the Met Police investigation into partygate, Johnson was fined for one event – his own birthday party in June 2020, held in Downing Street’s Cabinet Room. He told the committee that the fine “boggled my mind” as he thought it was a work event. The former PM also accused the committee of being unfair and claimed they had found “nothing incriminating,” a theme he returned to in his resignation statement.
