Britain’s former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has angrily quit as a member of parliament on Friday, claiming he had been forced out in a stitch-up by his political opponents.
The 58-year-old politician has been under investigation by a cross-party committee about whether he repeatedly lied to parliament over Covid lockdown-breaking parties when he was in office.
In evidence earlier this year, he angrily insisted he had not.
As the committee prepares to make public its findings, he said they had contacted him “making it clear… they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament”.
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.
The committee’s report, which has not been published, was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”, he said, complaining he had “no formal ability to challenge anything they say”.
The announcement came just hours after Johnson controversially rewarded his closest Brexit allies and officials implicated in the “Partygate” saga in his prime ministerial resignation honours list.
Johnson led the Tories to a thumping 80-seat majority in the December 2019 general election on a promise to “get Brexit done”.
This allowed him to railroad through parliament his divorce deal with the European Union, unblocking years of political paralysis.
But he was undone by his handling of the Covid pandemic, “Partygate” and a succession of other scandals that led to a ministerial rebellion in July last year.
Johnsin quit as prime minister and left office in September last year, amid rumours that he wanted another shot at the top job.
