A summary of today's developments
The Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, Nigel Adams, has stepped down with immediate effect, the third Tory MP to resign in 24 hours after Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries.
Labour has established a clear lead over the Tories in more than 100 battleground seats that will decide the next election, according to a new analysis seen by the Observer. Keir Starmer’s party has now secured a 10% swing from the Conservatives in a set of 144 seats in which the vote will be won and lost. Labour now holds a seven-point lead over the Tories in the seats, which include marginals in England, Wales and Scotland.
Boris Johnson is a “coward” who has “no respect” for the 2019 Conservative voters who put their faith in him, Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has said. Rayner added that Johnson jumped to avoid a potential byelection in his west London constituency.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has ruled out a formal pact with Labour to encourage tactical voting in order to beat the Conservatives in the byelections triggered by Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries’ shock resignations.
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said “most” MPs thought Boris Johnson had misled the House of Commons with his Partygate assurances. The Tory MP told GB News: “The truth of the matter is, ask around parliament, ask most of the MPs, most people are fairly sure he misled the house. And he did so many times and he did so knowing that these parties had occurred and he had been at some of them. It is hard to be at a party and not notice it is a party.”
Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to bar Boris Johnson from standing as a Conservative candidate at the next election, as senior Tories accused the former prime minister and his allies of a coordinated attempt to derail the government, writes Michael Savage and Toby Helm.
Amid anger at Johnson within the party over his explosive departure, in which he said he was only leaving Westminster “for now” and accused a cross-party committee of “egregious bias”, there is now a concerted push among senior Tories to ensure Johnson has no route back to the Commons for the foreseeable future.
One senior member of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, a former backer of Johnson, said it was the clear view among colleagues that he should be blocked from standing for another Tory seat at the next election.
Labour’s campaign co-ordinator, Shabana Mahmood, said Rishi Sunak has “lost control” of his party and is “too weak” to unite the Conservatives, before accusing Boris Johnson of showing “disdain” to his former constituents.
She told Sky News: “People here care about the cost of living, the Tories care about themselves.”
Mahmood added she would be a “billionaire” if she had £1 for every time a journalist had asked her whether Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey have had discussions about an unofficial pact.
She said: “We need MPs who are going to be the voice of their areas in Parliament, not treating their MP title as a plaything to do damage to their Tory prime minister.
“It is clear that these resignations and these by-elections are designed to do maximum damage to this Tory prime minister.
“This (Boris Johnson) is not a man who cares about anything other than Boris Johnson.
“What we care about is the voters of Uxbridge, he has shown disdain for the voters of Uxbridge.”
So he’s gone, in a flurry of self-pity, narcissism and baseless accusations. It was typical, classic, un-classy, purely puerile Boris Johnson, writes the Labour MP Chris Bryant.
Of course he thinks he’s the victim. So no apology. No acceptance of responsibility. No mention of those who abided by the rules when he and his mates flouted them. Nothing but overweening self-regard.
Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, has denied speculation that he might be planning to quit as an MP in the wake of Boris Johnson’s resignation.
Any speculation that I might be stepping down from my seat is untrue. The people of Stratford-on-Avon, and the country, want the Government to get on with delivering for Britain, I will be continuing to support the Government from the Conservative benches in the House of Commons.
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) June 10, 2023
Voters in Boris Johnson’s former constituency have said they are turning away from the Tories as Labour tries to win the seat for the first time in its history.
Some passers-by in the centre of Uxbridge, at the heart of the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency where a by-election will now take place, told the PA news agency they have abandoned the party.
The seat is becoming increasingly competitive for Labour – which is seeking to overturn a 7,200 majority.
However, some in the seat said the former PM was the victim of a partygate stitch-up.
Ron Redworth, 61, who works for Waitrose and lives in nearby Windsor and Maidenhead – which Theresa May represents, said: “I was surprised (to hear Boris had resigned), I was very surprised.
“I feel there has been an attempt to oust him because he was pro-Brexit.
“He should definitely have resigned over the coronavirus because you can’t be the leader of your country and carry on like that.
“You have to toe the line.
“He should have resigned as prime minister but not as an MP.”
Lea Valaris, 70, who lives in marginal Harrow, said: “He has probably done the right thing.
“I voted for him. He was a good prime minister, especially in relation to Ukraine. However he was kind of immature, he ran Downing Street a bit too lax. He should have tightened the reins.”
Anna Casey, 40, who lives in the constituency said: “This is a born liar. He was going to do all he could to stop the Third Runway and HS2 but he did a complete U-turn.
“I won’t be voting for the Conservatives in the by-election even though I have voted for them before.
“If he had stuck to his word maybe I would have voted for them again.”
The Sunday Times is reporting that Boris Johnson’s allies claim that more Conservative MPs will resign and trigger by-elections.
But a number of Johnson supporters quickly ruled themselves out of any co-ordinated resignation plot.
Priti Patel is expected to stand in the next election while red wall MPs including Jonathan Gullis, Brendan Clarke-Smith and Dehenna Davison dismissed suggestions they were planning to resign.
According to the newspaper, Andrea Jenkyns, who was made a dame in Johnson’s resignation honours, has told friends that she is not going anywhere, as has Conor Burns.
Danny Beales, Labour’s candidate in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, said at the party’s campaign launch in west London that people are feeling “pretty fed up” - whether they “voted Labour or Conservative”.
He told Sky News: “They feel the country is not working.
“I definitely think we’re in with a shot, we just need to get out there, speak to as many people as we can and make the case that I would be a great full-time MP and we need change, a new government too.
“I think mostly the sense for the last 10 years was we haven’t had a local MP, there hasn’t been an advice surgery where you can go and see your MP.
“You may write, you may get a response, you might not.”
Some analysis from Sky News’s Beth Rigby.
His resignation a shock: close political allies tell me they didn’t know it coming. But timing of bombshell makes sense: he’d clearly decided to quit rather than suffer the humiliation of vote to suspend him, but he wanted honours list signed off first. Once that done, he was off
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) June 10, 2023
There’d been expectation privileges cttee might avoid toughest of sanctions, but hear that subsequent info passed to cttee, & police, which emerged when Cab Office reviewed docs for Covid inquiry damning (BJ spot called this a political motivated stitch up) & BJ ‘bang to rights’
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) June 10, 2023
Also heard from one figure that the findings of the committee were unanimous against him - but will have to wait for report to be published to find out (that will happen perhaps next week with the cttee now looking to expedite publication)
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) June 10, 2023
With Boris Johnson appearing to leave the door open for a return to Parliament, saying he was leaving “for now” in his lengthy statement last night, Tory MP Bob Seely told Times Radio that Johnson “ain’t going to be leader of the Conservative Party again” and his achievements were “all in the past”.
Boris Johnson quit with a furious resignation statement that left open the threat of a return. But now unencumbered by the duties of parliamentary life, what lies ahead for the former prime minister?
Another lap of the lucrative speaking circuit
Johnson has already proved that despite the manner of his departure from office and the opprobrium heaped upon him by some of his own MPs, he can still command hefty fees from crypto bros, banks and businesses for one of his idiosyncratic speeches. He has already earned in the region of £5m since standing down as prime minister. Quitting parliament not only allows him to maintain his reputation as a winner among potential paymasters, it also means he will no longer have to declare his earnings.
Likelihood: 5/5
Labour is not “remotely complacent” about winning the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election or the general election, according to the shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth.
Speaking at a campaign event in the constituency on Saturday, Jonathan Ashworth told the PA news agency: “We are going to be campaigning hard for every single vote here. “This campaign here is about 13 years of economic failure by the Conservatives, 13 years of driving our NHS into the ground, 13 years of failing to give young people good jobs and opportunities to get onto the housing ladder and it’s about the complete mess the Tories made of the economy last year, putting a bomb under the economy.
“Labour is not remotely complacent, not remotely complacent because we are working hard to win the trust of the people... but I do just sense that people have had enough of the Conservatives. “People are fed up of nothing working in this country. “In many ways this is a last-gasp government. Rishi Sunak is asking the British people to pay the price of 13 years of their economic failure.”
Rishi Sunak is facing a further test of his leadership as another ally of Boris Johnson quit parliament, triggering a third byelection.
Nigel Adams, who had already confirmed his plans to retire at the next general election, on Saturday afternoon decided to stand down with immediate effect.
The former minister was nominated by Johnson for a peerage, but did not make the final list alongside Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma and Alister Jack. Sunak had blocked Johnson’s allies on the peerages list to avoid difficult byelections, which appear to be trickling in regardless.
Announcing his resignation, less than 24 hours after Dorries and Johnson, Adams said on Twitter: “Yesterday, Selby Conservatives selected an excellent new parliamentary candidate. I’ve today informed the chief whip that I will be standing down as a Member of Parliament with immediate effect.
Andrew Rawnsley argues that Boris Johnson has taken the coward’s way out by quitting the Commons because he calculated that he was going to be sacked from parliament.
In the richly storied history of British politics, there has been no ascent, peak, decline and fall quite like it. Some people have a go at trying to compare him with previous tenants of No 10, but that is a futile quest. We have never seen anyone quite like him in Downing Street before and, if we are a lucky country, we will never do so again.
Less than four years ago, his party was congratulating itself for making him their leader and hailing him as a demi-god for securing a near-landslide victory at the December 2019 election. Risible as it may now seem, even some of the more sensible Tories talked with wild hubris about a Johnson premiership lasting a decade, a fate that Britain mercifully avoided.
Now the first British prime minister to be convicted of breaking the law while in office adds another ignominious entry to his blot-splattered biography by becoming the only British prime minister to be compelled to quit the Commons because of the magnitude of his disgrace.
You can read the full article here:
Updated
The Tory donor Crispin Odey is to leave Odey Asset Management, the partnership said on Saturday, after a series of allegations of misconduct.
In a statement, the executive committee of OAM said Odey, who founded the hedge fund, will “no longer have any economic or personal involvement in the partnership”.
It came after a report in the Financial Times, together with Tortoise Media, that included several allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct from women who either worked at the firm or had social or professional dealings with Odey.
The statement, signed by the chief executive, Peter Martin, and the chief financial officer, Michael Ede, said the firm had investigated the allegations concerning Odey but “cannot comment in detail as it is bound by legal obligations of confidentiality”.
What do Uxbridge residents think of Johnson's resignation?
It was not until the final paragraphs of Boris Johnson’s more than 1,000-word resignation letter – after the comments about Brexit revenge, witch-hunts and kangaroo courts – that he managed to devote a line or two to the job he would be leaving behind: MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
In Uxbridge town centre the morning after, he was not exactly top of mind for his constituents either, many of whom were disillusioned at the state of British politics. But there was palpable relief at his departure.
Beth, 23, a restaurant manager, was one of several to employ a four-letter expletive to share their feelings about the former prime minister.“Good. Bye bye. Finally, again. He’s very good at this by this point.”
She had not, however, thought she would see the back of him so soon. “I expected him to loiter around like they all do.”
You can read more of Miranda’s reporting here:
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Labour has clear lead over Tories in more than 100 key seats, poll suggests
Worryingly for Rishi Sunak as he faces three byelections, a new poll has found Labour has a clear lead over the Tories in more than 100 battleground seats that could decide the next election.
In a rare insight into marginal constituencies at next year’s election, Keir Starmer’s party has now secured a 10% swing from the Conservatives in a set of 144 seats in which the vote will be won and lost. Labour now holds a seven-point lead over the Tories in the seats, which include marginals in England, Wales and Scotland.
With both main parties increasingly refining their key policy offers ahead of a looming election, the research suggests Labour now sits on 39% of the vote in the marginal seats, up from 32% at the last election. Meanwhile, the Tories have slumped from 44% to 32%.
However, the polling suggests that Labour’s hopes of securing an overall majority remain on a knife edge. To achieve this, Labour needs to win an additional 124 parliamentary constituencies. The analysis suggests it is on course to win about 117 seats from the Conservatives in England and Wales and about six to eight from the SNP in Scotland. That would give that party 123-125 extra seats.
Updated
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, responding to a third byelection being triggered by a Tory MP in 24 hours, has echoed her boss Ed Davey’s call for a general election.
The Conservative party is in meltdown and must now call a general election.
After years of failing our NHS and failing to deal with the cost of living crisis it is time people across the country have their opportunity to give a verdict on this chaotic Conservative government.
Updated
The resignation of Nigel Adams means the Tories are now facing three byelections in quick succession. Those three are:
Uxbridge and South Ruislip – Johnson’s seat, which he won with a majority of 7,210 in 2019.
Mid Bedfordshire – Nadine Dorries won this seat with a comfortable majority of 24,664 in 2019.
Selby and Ainsty – in 2019, Adams won this with a majority of 20,137.
Updated
Boris Johnson has stood down 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, and claimed there was a ‘witch-hunt under way’.
MPs from both major political parties have attacked Johnson – Labour’s Angela Rayner called him a ‘coward’, while former Conservative MP Anna Soubry described his 1,000-word statement as ‘shameful’.
Boris Johnson ally Nigel Adams steps down as MP
The Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, Nigel Adams, has stepped down with immediate effect.
In a post on Twitter, he said:
Yesterday, Selby Conservatives selected an excellent new parliamentary candidate.
— Nigel Adams MP 🇬🇧 (@nadams) June 10, 2023
I’ve today informed the chief whip that I will be standing down as a Member of Parliament with immediate effect.
It has been an honour to represent the area where I was raised, educated &
1/2
I want to thank my constituents for their wonderful support since 2010.
— Nigel Adams MP 🇬🇧 (@nadams) June 10, 2023
2/2
Updated
Most MPs thought Johnson misled the Commons, says David Davis
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said “most” MPs thought Boris Johnson had misled the House of Commons with his Partygate assurances.
PA reports:
The Tory MP told GB News: “The truth of the matter is, ask around parliament, ask most of the MPs, most people are fairly sure he misled the house.
“And he did so many times and he did so knowing that these parties had occurred and he had been at some of them.
“It is hard to be at a party and not notice it is a party.”
He said the former prime minister had been given “hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money” to pay for “the most expensive lawyers in the land” to advise him during the inquiry, adding: “So I hardly think that’s unfair treatment.”
The former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey separately told the news channel: “Conservatives all believe in personal responsibility – there is an element that Boris has to have personal responsibility for what went on.”
Updated
Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has ruled out a formal pact with Labour to encourage tactical voting in order to beat the Conservatives in the byelections triggered by Boris Johnson’s and Nadine Dorries’ shock resignations.
Dorries, one of Johnson’s fiercest cheerleaders, quit parliament on Friday after being told she would not be elevated to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list. Johnson followed suit hours later, ditching his outer-London seat with a bitter resignation statement accusing Rishi Sunak of leading a government that is “not properly Conservative” and attacking the Partygate investigation.
The Lib Dems insist they are ready to fight for Dorries’ rural Mid Bedfordshire seat, which is considered safe, and Johnson’s previous constituency, Uxbridge, putting up candidates in both byelections.
You can read more here:
Updated
Lord Fowler, the former speaker for the House of Lords, has said that the “farce” surrounding Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list brings into question whether former prime ministers should be able to hand out awards after leaving office.
Johnson has given his key allies peerages and damehoods, including Shaun Bailey and Priti Patel.
Fowler said: “I think it just brings into question the whole business of prime ministers’ honours. It has been a farce really from beginning to end. There has been leak after leak of the whole thing. It’s no way of running a government.”
“There is a specific issue here, and that is the issue of honours being given at the end of a prime minister’s period of office. I think it brings into the whole question of whether that is necessary and whether that is an appropriate thing to do.
“I just don’t see what the argument now is for it.”
Updated
The Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper has said that Boris Johnson’s political career “should be over for good”.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I think his comments came straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. The fact is that Boris Johnson has at every single turn rejected findings by MPs, by Parliament, and now by this inquiry.
“The fact is that he was never fit to be prime minister in the first place. He’s now jumped before he was pushed. And after all of the enormous hurt he has inflicted on the British public and the chaos that he has caused Parliament I only wish he just realised his political career should be over for good.”
"His comments came straight out of the Donald Trump playbook."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 10, 2023
Liberal Democrats MP @libdemdaisy tells Sky News that Boris Johnson's "political career should be over for good", after he quit as an MP.https://t.co/MN45tfGyF1
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/nyul4OmbO8
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Bronwen Maddox, the chair of the thinktank Chatham House, said Boris Johnson’s resignation signals the limits of his populist appeal.
Maddox said:
Very probably, this brings to an end the political career of one of the most charismatic, controversial and chaotic figures of recent British political life. For Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, this removes a thorn in his side. But whatever relief Sunak gets from the departure of his tormentor, it is better for Labour, now riding high in the polls.
Johnson’s exit speech was swipe after swipe of bitterness – at Sunak, for failing to build a trade deal and other warmer relations with the US, and at the now prime minister and his party for, as he sees it, squandering the majority he had won. His own part – through the spectacle of his breaking of lockdown rules – in throwing away that lead goes without acknowledgement entirely.
Even if this marks the probable end of one exceptionally controversial episode in British politics, the country might take comfort from the demonstration that the parliamentary system of investigation and scrutiny is getting stronger. It also suggests that the appeal of leaders like Johnson, forging a wide coalition by promises that they may not be able to deliver may be waning.
The claims he made for the bounty from Brexit were never ones on which he could deliver. Detailed, managerial government, which delivers what it promises and grapples with the cost of living – that is, the polls would suggest, what British voters increasingly want.”
Updated
Full story: Johnson a 'coward' with no respect for Tory voters, says Labour
Boris Johnson is a “coward” who has “no respect” for the 2019 Conservative voters who put their faith in him, Labour’s deputy leader has said, after he dramatically quit parliament before the findings of a cross-party investigation into whether he lied to the Commons had been published.,
The former prime minister resigned on Friday night after learning that an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament, and he was likely to face a lengthy suspension from the Commons.
In a resentful statement Johnson said there was a “witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result”, while accusing the investigation of acting as a “kangaroo court”.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said he had jumped to avoid a potential byelection in his west London constituency.
Johnson's resignation statement - what he really meant
Boris Johnson’s statement announcing he will quit the Commons is not brief – more than 1,000 words – and, as ever with the former prime minister’s pronouncements, there is a lot of often barely hidden subtext:
I have received a letter from the privileges committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.
They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.
This is Johnson trying to preshape opinion about the privileges committee report into whether he lied to MPs about lockdown-breaking parties, which he has seen but is not yet public. This is the statement’s key message: whatever the evidence, Johnson and his allies will always insist he was wronged.
They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.
They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current prime minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together.
I have been an MP since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously.
I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the committee know it.
But they have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth because from the outset their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons.
Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.
This is the other central message to not just this statement but most of Johnson’s public output since he was ousted – the idea that not only has he done no wrong, but that there is a conspiracy to remove him from politics. Both the argument and the seeming lack of any real evidence to back it up are strongly reminiscent of Donald Trump – a repeated theme in this missive.
Read more here:
What's happened so far today?
If you’re just joining us, here’s a round-up of this morning’s reaction to the news that Boris Johnson has stepped down as an MP after receiving the privileges committee report on Partygate.
Chris Bryant, the chair of the standards committee, said Johnson had left the Commons in “disgrace” after realising he was set to be suspended due to the Partygate findings. He added his “narcissistic rant” about the committee could even result in a new charge of contempt of parliament.
Will Walden, a former spokesperson for Johnson, also said the ex-PM had likely quit because he had “seen the writing on the wall”. Walden described Johnson’s refusal to take responsibility for his actions as “Trumpian” – but added he did not think this was the end of his political career.
Labour’s top team of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have both been on the attack, accusing Johnson of treating the public with ‘“contempt” and being a “coward” for quitting before the report was published.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, meanwhile, has ruled out any form of election pact with Labour ahead of the byelections resulting from the resignations of Johnson and Nadine Dorries.
We are yet to hear anything from No 10.
Updated
For a story like this, you would expect to wake up to pictures of a bleary-eyed Johnson being interviewed on his doorstep – or at least reporters camped outside his house.
This morning, however, we haven’t seen that.
One theory as to why that might be, says the Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, is because Johnson is not actually in the UK, or even Europe.
NEW
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) June 9, 2023
Government whips were given no notice of Boris Johnson's decision to resign.
I understand the former PM is in Africa, and not in the UK.
Updated
Johnson treated public with contempt, Starmer tells Labour members
The Labour party has wasted no time this morning in using the imminent byelection in Uxbridge and South Ruislip as a prompt for asking supporters for donations.
In an email to supporters, Keir Starmer writes:
[Boris Johnson] believed himself to be above the law. He treated the British public with contempt, partying while the nation grieved.
Labour now has an opportunity to deliver a historic victory. One that will send a real message about the sort of country we want to see, where decency and respect in our politics matters.
Rishi Sunak knows this moment is critical and will throw everything at it. We cannot let the Tories outspend us. They cannot have that advantage.
Victory in this contest is a vital step towards the next Labour government.
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Johnson's lack of apology 'very Trumpian', says former spokesperson
We’ve got a bit more from Will Walden, former adviser to Boris Johnson, who earlier said he did not think it was the end for him politically.
He has since added that his old boss’s refusal to take responsibility for his actions is similar to the behaviour of Donald Trump.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It feels to me he is angry and he is convinced by his own truth and his own righteousness.
There’s no apology, no taking responsibility. It all feels very Trumpian.
I think a large part of him actually believes that he really has been done wrong.
Updated
Angela Rayner said Boris Johnson had let down those voters who handed him his landslide election victory in 2019, arguing that the former prime minister has shown he had “no respect for the British public”.
The deputy Labour leader told the BBC:
I think the people put their trust in him because they thought he was about change and he was about putting them at the heart of decision-making, and he has let them down truly in the most devastating way at the time when they needed him most.
No one could have predicted what happened to this country during the pandemic, but at the time when the public needed him the most, he basically was partying and lying to them at a time when they couldn’t see their loved ones.
And that is unforgivable.
The fact that he cannot recognise the damage that he has done, and he has tried to stuff the Lords with people that propped him up and helped him and assisted him at the time shows us that actually he had no respect for the British public.
It was all about Boris and it has always been all about Boris to him, and people will be left disappointed by his legacy.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, who earlier called for a general election, has ruled out a pact with Labour when voters pick replacements for Boris Johnson’s and Nadine Dorries’ vacated seats.
We’ll stand candidates in both those elections and we’re going to take on the Conservatives on their dreadful record.
There’ll be no pacts, no deals. We will fight both byelections. Voters will make the decision.
They’ll decide which party is best placed to beat the Conservatives. We’ll put our case in both constituencies.
Updated
How has the privileges committee responded to Johnson's attack?
The committee of MPs, which has Tory, Labour and SNP members, is believed to have recommended his suspension for more than 10 days, which could have led to a recall petition and byelection in his constituency.
In the wake of Johnson’s attacks, a committee spokesperson said it had “followed the procedures and the mandate of the house at all times and will continue to do so”.
They hit back, saying Johnson has “departed from the processes of the house and has impugned the integrity of the house by his statement”.
The committee will “meet on Monday to conclude the inquiry and to publish its report promptly”, the spokesperson added.
Updated
Johnson saw the writing on the wall, says former spokesperson
We may still be waiting to hear from Tory MPs, but Will Walden, a former Johnson spokesperson, has now added his voice to the mix.
He has said his former boss saw “the writing on the wall” that he could be ousted in a potential byelection triggered by the privileges committee’s sanction.
Speaking to the Today programme, Walden, who does not think Johnson’s decision to quit as an MP has marked the end of his political career, added:
I think the most important thing that people need to understand this morning is there is only one thing driving Boris and that is that he likes to win, or at least not to lose.
And he hasn’t lost an election for 26 years, when the voters of Clwyd South decided he wasn’t their man in 1997.
I think the first thing to understand is this report clearly threatened to change all that.
He had seen the writing on the wall, he knew he probably would lose a by-election in his marginal seat. His primary motivation here, as it has been for the last year or so, is protecting his version of the narrative.
So by going, as he has, all guns blazing, he is able to avoid defeat, he is able to blame pretty much everyone else, including it seems anyone that voted Remain in 2016.
There is no plan but he is preparing himself for what might be next without the humiliation of being kicked out.
But it is so Boris. He told the committee that if they found against him, he wouldn’t respect the outcome - and so it has proved, there is no great surprise here.
Updated
It is worth noting that while Labour and Lib Dem MPs are lining up to slate Boris Johnson this morning, there is a notable absence of Conservative voices – either in support or criticism of the former PM.
We are also still waiting on an official statement from Downing Street.
Updated
Johnson's honours list includes some of the most discredited people in UK politics, says Bryant
We reported earlier on Chris Bryant and his views on Johnson’s resignation.
He has since added that what really surprises him is why, if Sunak knew Johnson was likely to step down, he approved his resignation honours list.
Speaking to BBC News, Bryant said:
One of the things that really surprises me is that Rishi Sunak must have known this was coming, so why on earth did he allow a man who was about to be a disgraced former prime minister to have a resignation honours list which is full of some of the most discredited people in British politics.
All of this just stinks.
Updated
On Johnson’s honours list, my colleague Hugh Muir has this to say:
If nothing became Boris Johnson more than the manner of his leaving No 10, nothing says more about the political rot he accelerated than the honours list that trails behind him and his announcement on Friday night that he will quit parliament having been told he faces ignominious suspension.
To scan the list that was perhaps his final act in frontline politics is to relive the era of cronyism and maladministration that he inflicted on the country. It redefined the very idea of honours as a reward for public service, replacing it with the sort of cheap favour you bestow on friends by buying them a seaside hat or a round in the pub.
Priti Patel, who took the Tory hostile environment badge of shame and wore it as a badge of honour, who as home secretary presided over a degradation of policing that has become a crisis of public trust, becomes a dame. Jacob Rees-Mogg, chief apologist for the chaos and deficiencies of the Johnson years in government, gets a knighthood.
Amid the continuing search for answers as to why the response of his administration to Covid was so poor, Johnson unveils a list containing honours and preferment for some of his aides who allegedly joined him at No 10 in ignoring the safety rules they had imposed on the rest of the population. If they partied then, they will party even harder now.
Read more here:
Johnson’s dramatic move came on the same day 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.
These include Martin Reynolds, who oversaw a Downing Street garden party during lockdown restrictions in 2020, and Jack Doyle, his former director of communications, who had discussed how to downplay the story.
Labour said the list amounted to “rewards for those who tried to cover up rule-breaking”, while the Lib Dems said it was “gongs for Johnson’s Partygate pals” and described it as “corruption pure and simple”.
Sunak had faced criticism for clearing the list while the privileges committee inquiry into Partygate was continuing, but Johnson’s resignation means their report will not have the same power as it would towards a sitting MP.
You can see who’s on Johnson’s honours list here:
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Accusation of privileges committee bias is 'tosh', says Rayner
More from deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner now.
She has said it is “tosh” for Boris Johnson to argue that the Commons’ privileges committee’s Partygate inquiry had not been fairly conducted.
She added it was “highly respected” and pointed to it having a Conservative majority.
Their report is also subject to a vote in the Commons where the Tories currently have a 66-seat majority, so this idea that he hasn’t been given a fair hearing is absolutely for the birds.
It is absolute rubbish and tosh, as he would say. It is just another way of Boris Johnson not accepting responsibility for his actions.
He thinks he can run fast and loose, and this time it has caught up with him.
He is trying to play the victim when the real victims in this is the people that he tried to gaslight, those that couldn’t see their relatives during Covid, who sadly passed away while they were in Downing Street having parties.
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We’ve got a bit more from Ed Davey, who has accused Boris Johnson of having “a track record of deceit and lies”.
I never thought he was fit to be an MP, let alone prime minister. He has a track record of deceit and lies.
But I hope today is not just about Boris Johnson. I think it’s about the whole Conservative party who put him there in the first place.
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Lib Dem leader calls for general election
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey has said there should be a general election following the resignation of Boris Johnson as an MP.
Speaking to the Today programme, he said:
I think there should actually be a general election.
I think the chaos and division in the Conservative party, the fact that they’re so out of touch on the cost of living, on the NHS, it means we’ve got to put the country out of its misery with these Conservatives.
I doubt they’ll do it, because I don’t think they’ve got the courage to do it. But Rishi Sunak should call a general election and, on the back of Boris Johnson’s resignation, let’s get rid of them.
Next up to have their say on the morning outlets is deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner.
She tells BBC Radio 5 Live that Johnson is a “coward” by resigning before a Commons Partygate investigation into his comments is published.
To me, he is a coward.
He knows that the privileges committee has seen through this fiasco and he has jumped.
He could have defended himself, he could have gone to his constituents and fought the suspension, and he has decided he is not going to do that because he knows he is in the wrong.
And he has never apologised to what he has done to the British people ... he has basically been gaslighting the nation, and I think he is a disgrace.
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Analysis: Johnson’s hopes for a comeback must surely now be futile
When Boris Johnson sat down to draft his resignation statement after learning the privileges committee had concluded that he lied to MPs over Partygate, he was determined to leave his enemies – on both sides of the Commons – a clear message.
“It is very sad to be leaving parliament,” he wrote. “At least for now …” That he still harbours hopes of a comeback – despite the damage that he has done to his own reputation, the Conservative party brand and to the country more widely – should surprise nobody.
Since he announced in July 2022 that he was quitting as prime minister, Johnson has made no secret of the fact that he felt he had done nothing wrong and so had been treated unfairly. “I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out,” he said.
Yet despite much speculation about the outcome of the privileges committee inquiry, few expected Johnson to go so quickly.
Read more here:
Chris Bryant, who was also chair of the privileges committee but recused himself from the investigation into Partygate, has also been on the Today programme.
He suggested the committee could conclude he should face a new charge of contempt of parliament after his “narcissistic rant”.
The report still stands and will have to go to the house. They may want to conclude that there has been an additional contempt of parliament by the way that Boris Johnson has behaved in the last 24 hours and in the attacks on the committee, which are in effect an attack on the whole house.
I don’t think anybody can now be in any doubt that Boris Johnson holds parliament in contempt.
I thought that was evident through the illegal prorogation of parliament, but it’s certainly true now.
The committee could ask the house to come to all sorts of different conclusions about the former member Boris Johnson, which would undoubtedly affect how he is seen into the future.
On Johnson’s attacking the committee for trying to undermine Brexit, remarking on the fact that it includes Bernard Jenkin, an arch Brexiter, and four Conservative MPs, he added:
It’s easy to forget quite how significant this moment is in terms of parliament and the issue of lying to parliament.
We have a very laborious process through the privileges committee in deciding whether an individual minister has lied to parliament and the culpability to go with that.
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Johnson leaving in disgrace - Chris Bryant
Labour MP Chris Bryant, the chair of the Commons standards committee, has been on BBC Breakfast this morning.
He says that Johnson has been forced out by a report from a committee that had a Tory majority, and during a period where the Commons also has a Tory majority, shows he is leaving as a “disgraced” former prime minister.
In all the breathlessness of this it’s easy to forget quite how significant a moment this is.
I presume he’s resigned because he, being the only person who has seen the draft copy of the report from the privileges committee, knows that the house is going to decide that he has lied to parliament and that that is a serious contempt of parliament, therefore he should be suspended from the house.
That has never ever happened to a prime minister. So he was not only ousted as prime minister but then thrown out of the House of Commons… by a committee that had a conservative majority and by a house that has a significant majority.
So he is leaving as a disgraced prime minister.
What the UK papers say about Johnson’s resignation
Boris Johnson’s departure from life as an MP ahead of the publication of the Partygate report plays out across Saturday’s front pages, which are filled with a mixture of acrimony, triumph and predictions of further “Tory bloodletting”.
The Guardian focuses on the reason for his decision to resign as MP, noting that the privileges committee found he misled parliament and recommended a lengthy suspension from the House of Commons. It finds a spot lower down for the reaction to Rishi Sunak approving Johnson’s honours list, regarded as rewarding those involved in the Partygate scandal.
Guardian front page, Saturday 10 June 2023: Johnson quits over report into Partygate pic.twitter.com/f9OkJqeHUV
— The Guardian (@guardian) June 9, 2023
The Times is among a few that go with the “party’s over” angle in their headline. It gives its main picture to a Johnson ally, Donald Trump, who is facing his own troubles over the retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.
The Daily Record says: “Party’s over, Boris,” and says he resigned over a “damning Partygate probe report into his lockdown antics”. It says he refused to take blame for his own downfall.
Daily Record: Party's over Boris #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/wrVg3jxB35
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) June 9, 2023
The Telegraph plays it relatively straight with the headline “Johnson quits as MP over Partygate” but notes his accusations of a “kangaroo court” and biased investigation in its subhead and intro.
Read more here:
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Boris Johnson wasn’t the only Tory MP to stand down yesterday. Before his announcement, former culture secretary and Johnson ally Nadine Dorries said she was also stepping down with immediate effect.
She made the announcement in a tweet after having reportedly been dropped from Boris Johnson’s resignation honours. The move means there will be a byelection in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency where, in 2019, the Conservatives won a 24,000 majority.
Dorries tweeted: “I have today informed the chief whip that I am standing down as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire with immediate effect. It has been an honour to serve as the MP for such a wonderful constituency but it is now time for someone younger to take the reins.”
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Johnson’s resignation statement in full
Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s resignation statement:
I have received a letter from the privileges committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.
They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.
They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.
They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current prime minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together.
I have been an MP since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously.
I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the Committee know it.
But they have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth because from the outset their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons.
Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court.
Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves.
In retrospect it was naive and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair. But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth.
It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament.
Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view. I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.
My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in Number 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader.
Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.
When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened.
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.
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.
Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare?
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.
I am now being forced out of parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate.
I believe that a dangerous and unsettling precedent is being set.
The Conservative party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election.
I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable.
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.
The Privileges Committee is there to protect the privileges of parliament. That is a very important job. They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hit-job on someone they oppose.
It is in no one’s interest, however, that the process the Committee has launched should continue for a single day further.
So I have today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate byelection.
I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as Mayor and MP.
But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15-year stint I have helped to deliver among other things a vast new railway in the Elizabeth Line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun.
I also remain hugely proud of all that we achieved in my time in office as prime minister: getting Brexit done, winning the biggest majority for 40 years and delivering the fastest vaccine rollout of any major European country, as well as leading global support for Ukraine.
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.
Tories braced for byelection after Johnson quits as an MP
Good morning. Just four years after his landslide general election victory, Boris Johnson has resigned as an MP and a byelection in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat is now imminent.
The former prime minister’s decision to step down comes after an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament and recommended a lengthy suspension from the House of Commons.
In a bitter 1,000-word statement, he attacked Rishi Sunak’s government, blaming the current prime minister for rising taxes, not being Conservative enough and failing to make the most of Brexit.
Johnson hinted that he may try to make a return to politics, saying he was “very sad to be leaving parliament – at least for now”.
You can read the the full report on Johnson’s resignation here from my colleagues Rowena Mason and Aubrey Allegretti.
You can also read analysis from our political editor, Pippa Crerar, here:
We’ll bring you all the latest updates and reaction through the day.
