Arch-Remainer Alastair Campbell has urged Rishi Sunak to scrap Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list. This comes as the former prime minister announced that he was stepping down as an MP with immediate effect after receiving the Partygate report. The honours list, which rewards some of Mr Johnson’s closest allies, was published just hours before his resignation.
The resignation will trigger a by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Mr Campbell tweeted: “Good. Now Sunak summon some courage and bin his ‘honours list’.”
Femi Oluwole, one of the leading Remainer voices following the referendum, tweeted: “Did I just hear someone say Boris Johnson has gone from being Prime Minister, with an 80-seat majority, to no longer even being an MP, in the space of 3 years?”
Gina Miller, who took the British government to court over its authority to implement Brexit without approval from Parliament, also relished the news.
JUST IN: Boris Johnson’s statement in full as he quits as an MP
She tweeted: “Boris Johnson resigns as MP – jumping before he’s pushed after seeing what looks like a damning report.
“Only sound judgement he’s shown for decades. Good riddance – we can finally start to reform our broken politics and put decency at the heart of Westminster.”
Former MP Anna Soubry, who quit the Tories over their Brexit stance, tweeted: “Goodbye #BorisJohnson worst PM ever.
“A man who destroys everything he touches.”
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell simply tweeted: “Good riddance.”
Several MPs tried to dismiss claims that the resignation was the result of a ‘Remainer witch-hunt’.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome tweeted: “Don’t let him spin this as a ‘remainer witch-hunt’.
“Boris Johnson has been exposed for what he is: a Prime Minister who broke the laws he made and then repeatedly lied about it. Simple as that. Good riddance.”
Mr Johnson issued a scathing response to the Partygate report, compiled by the MP-led Privileges Committee.
He condemned the committee as a “kangaroo court”, and claimed that its “purpose from from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.
He also took a parting shot at the current Conservative government led by Rishi Sunak.
Mr Johnson wrote: “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 should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit.”
