Prominent Conservatives members have accused ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and his friends of a systematic campaign to undermine the administration, over his resignation announcement. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is being pressured by some senior Tories to prevent Boris Johnson from running as a Conservative nominee in the next election.
Amid internal party outrage over Johnson’s explosive departure, he claimed that, he was only leaving Westminster “for now,” and apportioned blame on cross-party committee of “egregious bias.” There has been an organized effort within senior Conservatives to guarantee Johnson has no way back to the Commons in the near future.
One top official on the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, a former Johnson supporter stated that, it was widely agreed among comrades that he should be barred from running for any Tory seat in the next election. “The pantomime has to end. He has to be stopped by whatever means and the sooner the better,” the senior figure revealed.
Also, a backbencher who is associated with Sunak and once an ally of Johnson said, “The way he has behaved in insulting the House of Commons process is disgraceful.” He believes he can carelessly trash parliament. “If he is re-elected, he will keep trying to destabilize the administration.”
Additionally, former Tory Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, believes that, Johnson’s angry departure and vowing to come back have “all the characteristics of a disaster turned into an opportunity.”
Lord Heseltine believes he should not be permitted to stand for the Conservative Party again. “That is Boris’s basic problem,” Heseltine stated. “Words are designed to make his audience to believe whatever they want to believe. There is no anchor to any discernible truth or sense of integrity.”
“To me it is inconceivable that in these circumstances he could stand as a Conservative member of parliament again. It is up to Conservative central office to affirm an official Conservative candidate. No doubt he will now go out into the world and make huge sums of money, writing history as he thinks it was conducted. But it will have little to do with the reality of the mess he left behind.”
Lord Michael Heseltine, ex Tory Deputy Prime Minister.
Not all, there has been frantic discussion in Westminster about Johnson’s next step, with some thinking he might contest in the Mid Bedfordshire bye-election, triggered by the retirement of one of his staunchest supporters, Nadine Dorries. Conservative sources have blasted the concept as a non-starter.
Nigel Adams, a Johnson loyalist, prompted a third possibly disastrous bye-election by declaring his resignation on Saturday. Sunak would be battling bye-elections in Johnson’s Uxbridge seat, which Labour is certain of retaining, and Dorries’ constituency, which the Lib Dems are eyeing.
However, certain higher-ups in Sunak’s team contends that, the actions of a small group of MPs who remain passionately committed to Johnson, may intend to trigger extreme problems. “It’s a Thelma and Louise moment, deciding to drive off the cliff together,” a minister explained.
The Chair of the Commons Privileges Committee, who resigned from the Johnson and Partygate enquiry panel, claimed the ex-Prime Minister could face additional punishment for the way he made his declaration.
“The committee may additionally conclude that, his attacks on the committee were in themselves a contempt of parliament.” Bryant also argued that, other penalties might be taken into account. “The very least the house could do is refuse Johnson privileged access to parliament, with an ex-MP pass, for life.”
Johnson resigned as an MP on Friday night, after receiving the findings of the standards committee’s investigation into whether he deceived MPs on Partygate. Members of the committee, which had Tory majority, will meet on Monday to finalize the report, which would be published soon after.
According to reports, the investigation concluded that, Johnson misled the MPs, and recommended being barred from the House for over ten days, thus, the time limit for filing a recall request that would have resulted in a bye-election.
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