Your Saturday UK Briefing: ‘Bewildered’ Boris Says Goodbye — for Now

Follow us at @BloombergUK and on Facebook, and wrap up your day with The Readout newsletter.

Hello from London where Boris Johnson kicked off the weekend with a bang — a surprise announcement that he was resigning from Parliament. The former premier denounced as a kangaroo court the panel of lawmakers who investigated whether he misled lawmakers over his knowledge of Covid-19 rule breaches by government officials.

In a blistering statement, Johnson said the panel’s report was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice.” The resignation reopens his feud with Rishi Sunak and will trigger a challenging special election for a seat that the Tories held in 2019 with a relatively slim majority.

Sunak had a pretty good week until that point after meeting Joe Biden for the fourth time since taking over as prime minister less than a year ago. The former cricket player may not have thrown out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game on Wednesday, but he got to engage in a little baseball diplomacy and take the field for a photo op before his meeting the US president.