Boris Johnson is standing down as the Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, with immediate effect. His decision came in response to the verdict of the Privileges Committee, which recommended he be suspended from Parliament for 10 days and would pave the way for a by-election. Despite some evidence to the contrary, it looks like he jumped before he was pushed.
In an excoriating statement, Boris hit out at the “egregious bias” of the “kangaroo court“, which “had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks” to his guilt, as well as MPs from all parties who have done “whatever they can” to ensure his removal from Parliament. Boris also included a not-so-subtle message for Rishi Sunak and the government:
“Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.
We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up.
We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government.”
He’s not going down without a fight…
Read Boris’s full statement below:
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With Harriet Harman’s kangaroo court Privileges Committee soon set to adjudicate on Boris Johnson’s future, new polling suggests the threat of a by-election would be far from fatal for the former Prime Minister. A constituency poll of voters, in Uxbridge and South Ruislip alone, from Lord Ashcroft shows Boris would be home and dry, raking in a stonking 50% of the vote. Labour’s black mould candidate crashes and burns on 33%, whilst Guido’s favourite tofu fan, Blaise Baquiche, clocks in 6%. If the kangaroo court does jump to a by-election, Boris’s opponents would need one hell of a bounce to stand any chance…
This isn’t the only good news for Boris from the poll. Voters in Uxbridge were also asked their opinion of his record as Prime Minister: just 29% had a negative opinion with 41% saying he was “good” or “great”. By a net margin of 13%, voters also have a positive perception of his record as a constituency MP. Bring on the by-election…
Boris is bypassing the Cabinet Office and handing his diaries and WhatsApp messages directly to the Covid inquiry, after the government last night refused to hand over the material and instead announced it would take the inquiry to court. In a letter published this morning, Boris tells inquiry Chair Dame Hallett he is handing over “all unredacted WhatsApps I provided to the Cabinet Office” and would “like to do the same with any material that may be on an old phone which I have previously been told I can no longer access safely”:
“The government yesterday decided to take legal action. It was not my decision to do so. While I understand the government’s position, I am not willing to let my material become a test case for others when I am perfectly content for the inquiry to see it.
I am therefore providing the material directly to your Inquiry today in unredacted form.”
Read the full letter below:
The latest episode of Guto Harri’s Unprecedented podcast has shed further light on the tensions between Boris and Rishi while the pair were neighbours in Downing Street, with Johnson charging at Sunak’s affinity for splashing the cash. Boris grew frustrated with the Treasury’s “bank manager” orthodoxy, leading to “untenable” tension with the then Chancellor who had “signed too many cheques but got too little value for money”. In his frustration, Boris begged:
“If Rishi’s a Thatcherite, let’s have it!”
Quite…
Although less explicit than Harri’s previous revelations, Boris was again reported to have said “f*ck this sh*t, we need to clear out the Treasury… the computer just says no”. Guto also claims that Rishi did return fire as he dug in with his own expansionist agenda, leading him to conclude that, had the government not collapsed, the Chancellor wouldn’t have lasted the summer. It certainly adds context to the public tussles currently playing out over in the Cabinet Office…
Boris’s spokesperson has released a new statement claiming all his WhatsApps and notebooks have already been handed to the Cabinet Office “in full and unredacted form” and was given to them months ago. Yesterday the Cabinet Office claimed they didn’t have any…
“All Boris Johnson’s material – including WhatsApps and notebooks – requested by the Covid Inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form. While Mr Johnson understands the government’s position, and does not seek to contradict it, he is perfectly happy for the Inquiry to have access to this material in whatever form it requires […] The Cabinet Office has had access to this material for several months.”
What’s in there that the Cabinet Office doesn’t want released? The ball is in their court ahead of the deadline…
