LONDON: Former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s departure from parliament over Covid lockdown-breaking parties sparked fevered speculation on Saturday over his and the current government’s future, with allies and enemies trading barbs.
Johnson announced he was leaving as a member of parliament on Friday, claiming he had been forced out in a stitch-up by his political opponents.
One of Johnson’s allies quit earlier on Friday, while another resigned on Saturday, triggering three by-elections for a government languishing in the polls and heaping pressure on current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The 58-year-old Johnson has been under investigation by a cross-party committee about whether he deliberately lied to parliament over parties when he was in office.
In evidence earlier this year, he insisted he had not.
The Privileges Committee, which has a majority of MPs from his own Conservative party, has powers to impose sanctions for misleading parliament, including suspension.
By quitting, Johnson avoids the consequences of a humiliating fight to remain an MP in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency in northwest London where he holds a slim majority of just over 7,000.
He denounced the committee, chaired by veteran opposition Labour MP Harriet Harman, as a “kangaroo court”.
“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... with such egregious bias,” he said.
He claimed the committee’s report, which has not been published, was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”, adding he had “no formal ability to challenge anything they say”.
Their “purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”, he said. — AFP
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