LAURENCE Fox has announced that he will run to become an MP in Boris Johnson's former constituency.
The former prime minister quit after the Privileges Committee report, expected to be published this week, found him guilty of lying to Parliament over the partygate scandal.
With Johnson now officially logging his resignation with the Westminster authorities, electioneering is ramping up ahead of what is set to be an interesting by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
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And now, former actor Fox, who has previously run for London Mayor and helped fund the Reclaim Party in 2020, has announced he will contest the seat.
If Fox wins, he would be the party's second sitting MP, after Andrew Bridgen defected to the party after being expelled from the Conservatives.
Bridgen had been shunted from the Tories after comparing Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust.
Reform UK, the pro-Brexit party founded by Nigel Farage, has said it will not run a candidate against Fox, to give him the best possible chance to win against the more established parties.
In a statement, Fox (pictured above) said: "The main political parties are not fit for purpose.
"We have uncontrolled immigration putting pressure on an already over stretched NHS, which is one of the poorest performing health services in the developed world.
"Labour and Conservative are offering the same policies and are largely indistinguishable… Britain deserves better.
"Reclaim seeks to represent the best interests of British people, Reclaim is motivated by common sense. Reclaim is interested in a prosperous future for our children."
It comes as Johnson officially stood down as an MP on Monday afternoon.
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Earlier, Johnson had accused Rishi Sunak of “talking rubbish” after the Prime Minister claimed his predecessor asked him to overrule the vetting committee to push through his House of Lords nominations.
The rancour between former Tory leader and his successor descended into a public slanging match as Sunak said his one-time ally had asked him to “do something I wasn’t prepared to do”.
“I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that, then tough,” Sunak said on Monday in his first comments since Johnson dramatically resigned as an MP.
Publicly turning on the man he used to share Downing Street with, Sunak suggested Johnson (pictured below) wanted him to ignore the recommendations of the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac).
But Johnson’s camp accused the man who was his chancellor of having “secretly blocked” the peerages of former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and other allies in his resignation list.
The former prime minister released a statement saying: “Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish.
“To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac – but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality.”
The escalating war of words came after Downing Street published Johnson’s resignation honours list on Friday, lacking the names of sitting MPs including Sir Alok Sharma, who was Cop26 president, and former minister Nigel Adams.
Hours later Johnson announced that he would stand down as an MP as the Privileges Committee investigating whether he lied to Parliament over partygate prepared to find that he had broken the rules and recommend a suspension which could trigger a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
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Adams and Dorries also said they were quitting the Commons, triggering three challenging by-elections for the Prime Minister as his party trails in the polls.
On Monday morning, Sunak suggested Johnson wanted him to ignore Holac’s recommendations or to dish out promises.
“Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right,” the Prime Minister said when asked after a speech at the London Tech Week conference.
“That was to either overrule the Holac committee or to make promises to people.
“Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that, then tough.”
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