Ex-British prime minister Boris Johnson, instrumental in leading the U.K. out of the European Union, has resigned from Parliament, saying in a letter “there is a witch hunt underway, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.”
Johnson said he was “bewildered and appalled” when he received a letter from a House of Commons ethics committee that was investigating him over lockdown parties held at No. 10 Downing Street during the pandemic. “Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court,” Johnson wrote.
“The Committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice but under their absurd and unjust process I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say,” Johnson added.
Johnson was among the many who were fined for the parties alongside current prime minister Rishi Sunak. He has repeatedly defended himself by saying he genuinely thought they were legitimate work events.
The ex-prime minister, who mulled a bid to recapture the top post after his successor Liz Truss resigned, left the door open to return to the House of Commons in the future. Leaving now allows Johnson to run for Parliament in the future on his own terms instead of facing a special election. However, a political comeback appears more remote now than ever before.
Johnson also criticized Sunak, arguing when he left office, the government was only slightly behind the polls. “That gap has now massively widened,” Johnson wrote.
“Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk. Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do,” explained Johnson. “We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government.”
The ex-prime minister asked why the current government has “so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US.”
That comment appears in direct reaction to Sunak’s trip to Washington D.C. Thursday in which he and President Joe Biden announced the “Atlantic Declaration.”
Analysts have regarded it as nothing more than mutual protectionism against increasingly belligerent countries like Russia and China, thereby falling short of a free trade deal. Agreements include greater cooperation on emerging technologies and green energy.
“We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit,” argued Johnson.
Two Johnson allies — Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams — also quit, triggering special elections and an altogether uncomfortable situation for Sunak.
A national election must be held by the end of 2024, and polls suggest a narrower and narrower path for a Tory victory.