Illegal parties during the lockdown have now cost the former prime minister his political career.
(Photo: AP)
London Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned from Parliament with immediate effect. So the Conservative politician is reacting to a report by the so-called Privileges Committee in which he is apparently accused of breaching the Corona rules of Parliament at 10 Downing Street, the seat of government. The report has not yet been published but was provided to Johnson in advance.
Johnson’s resignation heralds a possible temporary suspension of Parliament. He used the opportunity to do a serious reckoning with the investigating committee: “I’ve been a member of Congress since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously. I’m not lying, and I’m sure the committee understands that in its heart,” the 58-year-old said. the old man wrote. The members of the investigative committee “deliberately chose to ignore the truth, because finding out the truth was never their goal in the first place.” Regardless of the facts, the goal in the first place was to convict him.
Johnson has claimed to the House of Commons that he is not aware of any breaches of corona rules in the seat of government during the pandemic. However, the deluge of photos of parties at 10 Downing Street during the lockdown, in which the then prime minister can also be seen, have cast doubt on his rhetoric, even among his Conservative friends. Johnson was also fined by London police for attending a birthday party. The incident, dubbed “Partygate”, led to Johnson’s resignation as prime minister last summer.
His resignation now leads to by-elections in his north-west London constituencies of Uxbridge and South Lathlip. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party won only a slim majority of 7,000 votes there. The opposition Labor Party, which leads the Conservatives by about 14 percentage points in national polls, is therefore likely to be targeting the seat. Johnson’s aide, Nadine Dorries, resigned from her Commons seat on Friday, leading to yet another by-election.
Johnson has also used his retirement to attack the policies of his successor, Sunak. “Why are we so passively giving up the prospect of a free trade deal with the US?” Sunak wrote as he just returned from Washington with no free trade deal in hand. “We must implement the 2019 campaign plan which was supported by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million people voted for Brexit,” the former prime minister wrote.
His party should not be afraid to be a true conservative government. He was very sad to leave Parliament – “at least for the time being”. It suggested Johnson reserved the option to return to active politics.
more: Boris Johnson uses tax to justify ‘party gate’