LONDON: UK opposition leader Keir Starmer on Sunday demanded a general election as three MPs from the ruling Conservative Party, inclu­ding Boris Johnson, quit parliament following a probe into Covid lockdown-breaking parties.

Labour leader Starmer tweeted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “must finally find a backbone, call an election, and let the public have their say on 13 years of Tory failure.

Johnson announced on Friday he was leaving as a member of parliament, claiming he had been forced out in a stitch-up by his political opponents.

The 58-year-old Johnson has been under investigation by a cross-party committee about whether he deliberately lied to parliament over parties when he was in office.

As the committee prepares to make public its findings, Johnson said they had contacted him “making it clear… they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament”.

By quitting, Johnson avoids the consequences of a humiliating fight to remain an MP in his Uxbr­idge and South Ruislip constituency in northwest London where he holds a slim majority of just over 7,000.

He denounced the committee, chaired by veteran opposition Labour MP Harriet Harman, as a “kangaroo court”.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2023