I’ve acquired a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – a lot to my amazement – that they’re decided to make use of the proceedings in opposition to me to drive me out of parliament.
They’ve nonetheless not produced a shred of proof that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.
They know completely properly that after I spoke within the Commons I used to be saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like another minister. They know that I corrected the document as quickly as attainable; they usually know that I and each different senior official and minister – together with the present Prime Minister after which occupant of the identical constructing, Rishi Sunak – believed that we have been working lawfully collectively.
I’ve been an MP since 2001. I take my obligations critically. I didn’t lie, and I imagine that of their hearts the Committee comprehend it. However they’ve wilfully chosen to disregard the reality as a result of from the outset their objective has not been to find the reality, or genuinely to grasp what was in my thoughts after I spoke within the Commons.
Their objective from the start has been to seek out me responsible, whatever the information. That is the very definition of a kangaroo court docket.
Most members of the Committee – particularly the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt earlier than that they had even seen the proof. They need to have recused themselves.
Looking back it was naive and trusting of me to assume that these proceedings might be remotely helpful or truthful. However I used to be decided to imagine within the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the reality.
It was the identical religion within the impartiality of our programs that led me to fee Sue Grey. It’s clear that my religion has been misplaced. After all, it fits the Labour Get together, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do no matter they’ll to take away me from parliament.
Sadly, as we noticed in July final yr, there are at the moment some Tory MPs who share that view. I’m not alone in considering that there’s a witch hunt underway, to take revenge for Brexit and finally to reverse the 2016 referendum outcome.
My elimination is the mandatory first step, and I imagine there was a concerted try and convey it about. I’m afraid I now not imagine that it’s any coincidence that Sue Grey – who investigated gatherings in Quantity 10 – is now the chief of workers designate of the Labour chief.
Nor do I imagine that it’s any coincidence that her supposedly neutral chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a robust Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted private assaults on me and the federal government.
Once I left workplace final yr the federal government was solely a handful of factors behind within the polls. That hole has now massively widened.
Only a few years after profitable the largest majority in virtually half a century, that majority is now clearly in danger.
Our occasion wants urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its perception in what this nation can do.
We have to present how we’re benefiting from Brexit and we want within the subsequent months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We have to reduce enterprise and private taxes – and never simply as pre-election gimmicks – somewhat than endlessly placing them up.
We should not be afraid to be a correctly Conservative authorities.
Why have we so passively deserted the prospect of a Free Commerce Cope with the US? Why have we junked measures to assist individuals into housing or to scrap EU directives or to advertise animal welfare?
We have to ship on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million individuals. We must always keep in mind that greater than 17 million voted for Brexit.
I’m now being compelled out of parliament by a tiny handful of individuals, with no proof to again up their assertions, and with out the approval even of Conservative occasion members not to mention the broader citizens.
I imagine {that a} harmful and unsettling precedent is being set.
The Conservative Get together has the time to recuperate its mojo and its ambition and to win the subsequent election. I had appeared ahead to offering enthusiastic help as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has got down to make that goal utterly untenable.
The Committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice however beneath their absurd and unjust course of I’ve no formal capacity to problem something they are saying.
The Privileges Committee is there to guard the privileges of parliament. That could be a essential job. They shouldn’t be utilizing their powers – which have solely been very lately designed – to mount what’s plainly a political hitjob on somebody they oppose.
It’s in nobody’s curiosity, nevertheless, that the method the Committee has launched ought to proceed for a single day additional.
So I’ve right this moment written to my Affiliation in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I’m stepping down forthwith and triggering a right away by-election.
I’m very sorry to depart my great constituency. It has been an enormous honour to serve them, each as Mayor and MP.
However I’m proud that after what’s cumulatively a 15 yr stint I’ve helped to ship amongst different issues an enormous new railway within the Elizabeth Line and full funding for an exquisite new cutting-edge hospital for Hillingdon, the place enabling works have already begun.
I additionally stay vastly pleased with all that we achieved in my time in workplace as Prime Minister: getting Brexit finished, profitable the largest majority for 40 years and delivering the quickest vaccine roll out of any main European nation, in addition to main international help for Ukraine.