Boris Johnson resigns as MP with immediate effect over Partygate report

Boris Johnson is standing down immediately as a Conservative MP after an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament and recommended a lengthy suspension from the House of Commons.

The former prime minister angrily accused the investigation of trying to drive him out. He hinted that he may try to make a return to politics, saying he was “very sad to be leaving parliament – at least for now”.

The recommendation from the investigation by the privileges committee of MPs that Johnson be suspended for more than 10 days could have led to a recall petition and by-election in his constituency. But Johnson took the decision to step back of his own accord.

His move comes on the day Rishi Sunak cleared a resignation honours list for him, including more than 40 peerages and other rewards for some of his closest allies from the time of the Partygate scandal.

Awards went to Johnson’s closest aides from the Covid era including an Order of the Bath for his former principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, who oversaw a garden party during lockdown restrictions in 2020.

Johnson’s resignation will trigger an immediate byelection his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. It is the second in a day for Sunak after Nadine Dorries resigned as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after her inclusion on the peerage list was blocked.

In a lengthy statement, Johnson said: “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, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.”

He said it was his “faith in the impartiality of our systems” which led him to commission the former civil servant Sue Gray to investigate parties in Downing Street. Guardian UK