Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, showed determination to “continue” despite the wave of resignations from within government. This is despite his authority already severely damaged by a series of scandals.
The man who won the 2019 election had seen a slew of scandalous cases and allegations of lying over the past few months. Tired, Finance Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, Ministers of Health, shut down Tuesday evening. Other senior members of the government also left, bringing the total to twenty.
Despite being weak, Boris Johnson was still combative in the weekly session of questions to Prime Minister. Before the deputies, he defended his government’s actions. Some of them laughed at him. Boris Johnson refused to leave and claimed instead that the “colossal mandate”, given to him by the voters in 2019, gave him the obligation to “continue”.
Keir Starmer, Opposition Labor leader, blasted the “pathetic spectacle”, while Ian Blackford, Scottish Nationalist SNP leader at the House of Commons demanded a snap vote. Two Tory MPs called for Boris Johnson’s resignation.
Resigning ministers had harsh words to say about the head of government and questioned his honesty. John Glen, Secretary of State for Finance, was one of the starters. He dryly justified his resignation with a “total lack confidence” in Prime Minister.
Sajid Javid, a deputy, explained that he had left the Ministry of Health as he was convinced that Boris Johnson would not change. He launched before certain deputies resumed a “goodbye” Boris by one of them.
Boris Johnson, his Finance colleague and his resignation were both announced Tuesday evening after an embarrassing new scandal. In February, he admitted to making a mistake in appointing Chris Pincher as his deputy chief whip in charge of parliamentary discipline. After being accused of touching two men, the latter resigned last Wednesday.
After asserting the contrary, Downing Street acknowledged Tuesday that Mr. Pincher had been made aware of the allegations as early as 2019, but that he had “forgotten them” by naming him.
His political survival is at stake if Boris Johnson’s support is reaffirmed by several ministers.
He will be confronted by the Chairmen of the House of Commons’ main committees in the afternoon. This includes some of his most vocal critics from the Conservative party.
A poll conducted by YouGov on Tuesday night found that 69% of British voters think Boris Johnson should be fired. 54 percent of Conservative voters believe that the Prime Minister should be removed from office in 2019.
