Boris Johnson resigns as an MP with IMMEDIATE EFFECT after receiving privileges committee findings
Boris Johnson has resigned as the MP for Uxbridge & South Ruislip with immediate effect after receiving a letter from the privileges committee about its Partygate probe.
Johnson, 58, released a 1,000-word resignation statement stressing he was "bewildered and appalled" by the privileges committee's drive to oust him from the House of Commons.
The ex-Prime Minister 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.
"I am being forced out by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate.
"I believe that a dangerous and unsettling precedent is being set."
The former Prime Minister, who was first elected as the MP for the West London seat in 2015, also took aim at former senior civil servant Sue Gray.
Gray led Whitehall's investigation into Partygate and is soon expected to join Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Southside.
Johnson claimed he no longer believes "that it is any coincidence" that Gray will become the Leader of the Opposition's chief of staff.
He added: "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."
The 58-year old, who played a leading role in the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, alleged that the privileges committee's "witch-hunt" was taking "revenge for Brexit and ultimately [trying] to reverse the 2016 referendum result".