A committee of lawmakers harshly rebuked former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday, saying he lied to Parliament about lockdown-flouting parties and was complicit in a campaign to intimidate those investigating his conduct.
The House of Commons Privileges Committee found Johnson’s actions were such a flagrant violation of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament. That sanction would have been more than enough to trigger a by-election that could have cost Johnson his seat in Parliament, but the former prime minister avoided that ignominy by resigning on Friday after the committee gave him advance notice of its findings.
Release of the committee’s scathing 77-page report touched off an angry exchange of recriminations, with Johnson repeating his claims that the panel was a “kangaroo court” bent on ousting him from Parliament and the committee saying his defense was an after-the-fact justification that was “no more than an artifice.”
( Source AP)
