Boris Johnson must not be allowed to undermine our belief in democracy

Editorial: The former prime minister seeks revenge, and his conspiracy theories are dangerous

Johnson risks undermining people’s confidence in our parliamentary democracy (AP)

Boris Johnson’s selfish destructiveness goes beyond his personal campaign against his imagined enemies to threaten our parliamentary democracy. Calling the privileges committee a “kangaroo court” is close to an act of treachery: it is an attempt to undermine the constitution.

The former prime minister has resigned from the House of Commons, issuing a statement of rare bitterness and rage. And he has taken two of his closest allies with him, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams, causing three by-elections that will be embarrassing for Rishi Sunak.

Labour is expected to win Mr Johnson’s former constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, whereas the Liberal Democrats are poised to repeat recent giant-killer victories, coming from third place to defeat the Conservatives in their safe seats of Mid Bedfordshire and Selby and Ainsty.

Mr Johnson is out to get revenge for what he believes is a conspiracy against him by the Labour Party, Remainers, the Blob and the universe (“the Blob” being useful Tory shorthand for imaginary opponents in the civil service and the institutions of the establishment, invoked in an effort to explain why the Johnson administration’s failure had nothing to do with its leader’s own incompetence).

But the revenge he really seeks is against his own party. The by-elections are an attempt to inflict as much damage as possible on Mr Sunak’s government, and the language of Mr Johnson’s resignation statement is an attempt to intensify the civil war in the Conservative Party. “We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government,” Mr Johnson wrote. “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?”

As Will Walden, Mr Johnson’s former spokesperson, said: “It is the language of vendetta, it’s a long rant, and, frankly, it’s deeply misleading in places.” Worse than that, though, it is dangerous, because it suggests that the House of Commons and its privileges committee have been captured by “a tiny handful of people” bent on perverting democracy. This, as John Rentoul writes, is akin to Donald Trump claiming that the US presidential election was “stolen”.

Mr Johnson said: “I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.” This is beyond the pale. There is no reason for what is likely to be the end of Mr Johnson’s parliamentary career beyond his own failings, which have led to him losing the confidence of large numbers of his Conservative colleagues, including many who voted to leave the EU.

In the end, by jumping before he was pushed, and by having his acolytes force by-elections as a wrecking tactic – the equivalent of trashing the joint on their way out – Mr Johnson shows only his weakness.

But by lashing out in this fashion, and feeding dangerous myths of shadowy puppet-masters controlling events behind the scenes, the former prime minister risks undermining people’s confidence in our parliamentary democracy. He must not be allowed to succeed.