Another UK Conservative Lawmaker Adams Resigns After Former PM Boris Johnson
British Conservative lawmaker Nigel Adams stepped down on Saturday with immediate effect, triggering a third by-election after the resignations of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries a day earlier.
“I’ve today informed the chief whip that I will be standing down as a Member of Parliament with immediate effect,” Adams, who served as a minister in Johnson’s administration, said on Twitter.
Boris Johnson abruptly quit as a member of parliament on Friday in a furious protest against lawmakers investigating his behaviour, reopening deep divisions in the ruling Conservative Party ahead of a general election expected next year.
Johnson had been under investigation by a parliamentary inquiry looking into whether he misled the House of Commons about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Johnson received a confidential letter from the committee, he accused lawmakers investigating him of acting like a “kangaroo court” and being determined to end his political career.
Accusing the committee of mounting a “political hit job”, Johnson said in a statement: “I am being forced out by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions.”
Parliament’s privileges committee – the main disciplinary body for lawmakers – had the power to recommend Johnson be suspended from parliament. If the suspension is for more than 10 days, voters in his constituency could have demanded he stood for re-election to continue as their representative.
