Boris Johnson resigns
UK prime minister Boris Johnson plans to resign, according to two officials familiar with his thinking, following an unprecedented wave of resignations from his government over the past two days.
“It is now apparent that the parliamentary Conservative Party will that there should be a new head of the party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said in a six-minute speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street.
The quick rollout of vaccines, Brexit, and “leading the West in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine” were among the accomplishments he listed after that.
“In the last few days, I tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much when we have such a vast mandate,” Johnson said. “And when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, and even in midterm after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally, I regret not to have been successful in those arguments, and of course, it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.”
On Wednesday, the premier had remained defiant with his team saying he intended to fill the vacant roles. But the exodus continued on Thursday morning, with two cabinet ministers quitting, alongside a slew of junior ministers, and Zahawi tweeting that the situation was “not sustainable.”
Johnson eventually decided to step down after a contentious 48 hours in British politics, and a new Conservative leader is anticipated to be in place before the party conference in October. Johnson will serve as prime minister until the fall, capping his tenure of just more than three years.
A series of scandals have followed Johnson in recent months. Following an apology from the PM for selecting disgraced MP Chris Pincher as his deputy chief whip despite being aware of prior allegations of sexual misconduct against Pincher, Javid and Sunak resigned.
Pincher quit in late June after being accused of molesting two men at a Tory event at London’s Carlton Club. Thereafter, a flurry of claims of past wrongdoing against the MP surfaced. After denying for several days that he was aware of the claims, Johnson finally acknowledged on Tuesday night that he was aware of a complaint lodged against Pincher at the Foreign Office three years prior.
The Pincher brouhaha came on the heels of the Partygate scandal, which involved a series of parties held at 10 Downing Street — which is Johnson’s office as well as his private home — and attended by top government officials during the strictest period of the U.K.’s lockdown. A number of photographs have shown the British prime minister in attendance at these gatherings.
It’s a disgraceful end for a prime minister who helped his party win a huge majority in the general election of 2019 and who just last month signaled his intention to hold office into the 2030s.
After eight days of international diplomacy at conferences around the world, Johnson was in good spirits as he prepared to deliver his concluding remarks to the Nato summit in Madrid. He dodged inquiries from reporters on the road about his personal conflicts, choosing to concentrate on his attempts to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.