Johnson announces his resignation from the British Parliament
Boris Johnson, who served as former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, tendered his resignation from the House of Commons on Friday evening. The announcement came against the backdrop of an ongoing parliamentary investigation into the "Party Gate" scandal, which refers to the events that were hosted by the Downing Street headquarters in violation of health restrictions related to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The 58-year-old Johnson said that his decision will go into force immediately, which means that there would be by-elections held, which will increase the amount of political pressure that is being put on the present Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
This decision was reached by Johnson after he was presented with the findings of an investigation conducted by parliamentarians into misleading claims he made to Parliament about meetings at Government House, which were in violation of the guidelines governing the pandemic lockdown.
In a statement, he made the accusation that his adversaries were conspiring to remove him from the council.
The Privileges Committee came to the conclusion after hearings of his investigation that the evidence it had clearly indicated that Johnson "misled Parliament at least four times" between 2021 and 2022 when he asserted to the House of Commons that he had not "breached" the rules related to the closure imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. This was after the committee concluded that the evidence it had clearly indicated that Johnson "misled Parliament at least four times."
Johnson had stepped down from his position as prime minister in 2022 as a result of a number of scandals, but he continued to serve as an MP.
(Agence France-Presse, Associated Press)
