Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will cease to be an MP with immediate effect, triggering a by-election on his seat. Johnson, who announced the decision this Friday in a statement, had been facing a parliamentary investigation for months that analyzed whether he deceived the House of Commons when he said that all the rules against covid-19 had been respected while occupying Downing Street.
"It is very sad to leave Parliament, at least for now," Johnson said in a statement. "I am being forced out by a small handful of people who have no evidence to back up their claims, and without the approval of even members of the Conservative Party let alone the wider electorate."
Parliament's so-called privileges committee could have recommended that Johnson be suspended from Parliament for more than 10 days if he was found to have misled MPs recklessly or deliberately, potentially triggering a snap election for his seat.
The former prime minister said he had received a letter from the commission: "[It] made it clear, to my surprise, that they are determined to use the process against me to kick me out of parliament." Johnson, whose mandate was cut short in part by anger from his own party and citizens over the Downing Street party scandal during the pandemic lockdown, accused the committee of being the "very definition of a kangaroo court [a judicial body that does not respect due process]."
"Most members of the Committee - especially the chairman - had already expressed deeply prejudiced remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence," Johnson said. "In retrospect, it was naïve and trusting of me to think that these procedures could be remotely useful or fair."
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