Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the context of "Boris Johnson"

⭐ In the context of Boris Johnson, a Resignation_from_the_House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom occurred when he chose to prioritize which role?

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⭐ Core Definition: Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

As a constitutional convention, members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom are not formally permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown"; by law, such an appointment disqualifies them from sitting in the House of Commons. For this purpose, a legal fiction has been maintained whereby two unpaid sinecures are considered to be offices of profit: Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

Since the passage of the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975, "offices for profit" are no longer disqualifying in general, but the explicit list of hundreds of disqualifying offices contained in the act now includes the two stewardships so that this convention can be continued. It is rare for an MP to be nominated to a legitimate office of profit on the disqualifying list; no MPs have lost their seat by being appointed to an actual office since 1981, when Thomas Williams became a judge.

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👉 Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the context of Boris Johnson

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and the second mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.

In his youth Johnson attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1989 he began writing for The Daily Telegraph, and from 1999 to 2005 he was the editor of The Spectator. He became a member of the Shadow Cabinet of Michael Howard in 2001 before being dismissed over a claim that he had lied about an extramarital affair. After Howard resigned, Johnson became a member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet. He was elected mayor of London in 2008 and resigned from the House of Commons to focus his attention on the mayoralty. He was re-elected mayor in 2012, but did not run for re-election in 2016. At the 2015 general election he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson was a prominent figure in the Brexit campaign in the 2016 EU membership referendum. After the referendum, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him foreign secretary. He resigned from the position in 2018 in protest at both the Chequers Agreement and May's approach to Brexit.

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Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the context of List of stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds

Appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds (or the Three Hundreds of Chiltern) is a procedural device to allow members of Parliament (MPs) to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Since MPs are technically unable to resign their seats in the House of Commons, they must resort to a legal fiction. An appointment to an "office of profit under The Crown" disqualifies an individual from sitting as an MP. Although several offices were used in the past to allow MPs to resign, only the stewardships of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead are in present use.

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Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the context of List of stewards of the Manor of Northstead

The office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead functions as a procedural device to allow a member of Parliament (MP) to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Commons are forbidden from formally resigning, a legal fiction is used to circumvent this prohibition: appointment to an "office of profit under The Crown" disqualifies an individual from sitting as an MP. As such, several such positions are maintained to allow MPs to resign. Currently, the offices of Steward of the Manor of Northstead and Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds are used, and are specifically designated for this purpose under the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975; several other offices have also been used historically. The appointment is traditionally made by the chancellor of the Exchequer. The position was reworked in 1861 by William Ewart Gladstone, who was worried about the honour conferred by appointment to people such as Edwin James, who had fled to the United States over £100,000 in debt. As such, the letter by the chancellor was rewritten to omit any references to honour.

The office was first used in this way on 20 March 1844 to allow Sir George Henry Rose, MP for Christchurch, to resign his seat. Appointees to the offices of Steward of the Manor of Northstead and Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds are alternated so that two MPs can resign at once (as happened on 23 January 2017 when Tristram Hunt and Jamie Reed resigned). However, every new appointment revokes the previous one, so there is no difficulty in situations in which more than two resign, such as the 1985 walkout of Ulster Unionist MPs when several separate appointments were made on a single day. If a resigning MP wishes to contest the following by-election, as Douglas Carswell did in 2014, they need to resign the stewardship to avoid further disqualification.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Boris Johnson ← List of stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds ← List of stewards of the Manor of Northstead
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Constitutional conventions of the United Kingdom → Member of Parliament (United Kingdom) → House of Commons of the United Kingdom → Office of profit → The Crown → Legal fiction → Sinecure → List of stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds → List of stewards of the Manor of Northstead → House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 → Thomas Williams (Warrington MP) →