Fallout continues after Johnson's resignation

Members of the House of Commons Privileges Committee held talks on Monday about when the panel is likely to publish its report into allegations that former British prime minister Boris Johnson misled Parliament over the pandemic lockdown rule-breaking incidents known as partygate.

The panel would have the power to suspend Johnson from Parliament, but on Friday he stunned political observers by announcing his resignation as a member of Parliament, with immediate effect.

In his resignation statement, Johnson said he had received a letter from the committee "making it clear — much to my amazement — that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament".

He went on to accuse the seven-member committee, which has a majority of members from his own Conservative Party, of having "wilfully chosen to ignore the truth…their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court".His statement concluded by saying he was "very sad to be leaving Parliament — at least for now".

While his actions drew predictable criticism from political opponents, they also provoked an angry reaction among fellow Conservatives.

Tim Loughton, the former chair of the Parliamentary home affairs select committee, said: "My hope for the future of Boris Johnson is that he will shut up and go away and let us get on with the business of running the country."

Long-standing critic Tobias Ellwood was even more direct, saying Johnson had "departed in his own style, kicking and screaming with so much drama, inflicting damage as he goes … his actions are akin to mutiny", and former Brexit secretary David Davis said "the truth of the matter is, ask around Parliament, ask most of the MPs, most people are fairly sure he misled the house".

Johnson's exit came the same day that his resignation honors list was announced, a privilege available to but not taken up by all former prime ministers, where they can bestow honors on their political associates.

Because of the controversy that hangs over Johnson, many observers considered it inappropriate for him to be allowed such patronage, with the appointment of little-known 29-year-old former adviser Charlotte Owen to a lifetime seat in the House of Lords drawing particular criticism.

The angry tone of Johnson's latest exit, his insistence of his innocence, and his thinly-veiled threat to return will heighten tensions within the Conservative Party, and create problems for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who many Johnson loyalists have never forgiven for his part in unseating him last year.

At the weekend it emerged the House of Lords Appointments Commission, or Holac, turned down eight of Johnson's Lords appointees, and on Monday the BBC quoted Sunak as saying Johnson had asked him to overrule their verdict.

"Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn't prepared to do because I didn't think it was right," he told reporters at London Tech Week. "That was to either overrule the Holac committee or make promises to people.

"I wasn't prepared to do that. As I said, I didn't think it was right. And if people don't like that, then tough."