Following the resignation of dozens of cabinet members, Boris Johnson will step down as the leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday, according to BBC. This will make room for a new prime minister of the United Kingdom.
At 1 pm, he is scheduled to address the country and lay out his agenda for the coming few weeks.
Although it is not yet known when the selection process to succeed him would start, Attorney General Suella Braverman has already entered the race. It took six weeks to hold the last Tory leadership contest.
Since the initial Cabinet walkouts on Tuesday, the PM has come under great pressure to resign. On Wednesday, he declared his intention to “keep going” in the position, but it now seems that the pressure may have been too much.
According to a government source, he thought about it overnight and decided to quit when he awoke “with a clarity of thinking.” Today, he will call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ensure that the UK will continue to help Ukraine.
As a courtesy, he also informed the Queen of his plans this morning.
Just 24 hours after accepting the position left empty by Rishi Sunak’s departure, the new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, made the extraordinary decision to urge his employer to leave, making it very evident that the end was near.
Less than a day after accepting Mr Zahawi’s position as education secretary, Michelle Donelan, who may have held the record for the shortest tenure in UK history, announced her resignation.
Sajid Javid’s departure as health secretary on Tuesday evening set off a wave of resignations in the cabinet, which was swiftly followed by Mr Sunak’s resignation as chancellor and Sajid Javid’s resignation as health minister.
Although there have been 56 resignations overall, it seems like that number is continually rising.
Nearly all of those who resigned cited Mr Johnson’s integrity as a reason for their actions, citing scandals like Partygate and the more recent Chris Pincher affair; some, however, also highlighted problems with the government’s LGBT+ policy.
The way Mr Johnson handled the charges of sexual misbehaviour against Mr Pincher, who quit after allegedly “groping” two men last week, seems to have been the tipping point for many.
After Mr Javid and Mr Sunak left, Mr Johnson apologised for appointing Mr Pincher as deputy chief whip while being aware of the allegations made against him on Tuesday.
On Wednesday during PMQs, he apologised once more, but by that point, the crowd seemed to have fully turned against him.
The prime minister responded to a Tory MP’s question about whether there was ever a situation in which he would resign by saying: “The role of a prime minister in tough circumstances when he has been awarded a massive mandate is to keep going and that’s what I’m going to do.”
UPDATE: Boris Johnson’s nearly three-year term as prime minister of the United Kingdom ended abruptly on Thursday due to scandal and controversies.
Addressing outside Downing Street, Johnson argued that the selection process for the new Conservative Party leader should start right away, with a timeline to be revealed the following week. He declared that he would continue in that position until a new Tory leader was chosen.
Despite a glaring lack of support from his own party and mounting pressure from across the political spectrum to resign immediately, he has decided to stay in office.
Johnson acknowledged that “no one is remotely indispensable” in politics but expressed sadness at leaving “the best job in the world.”
At Westminster, the herd instinct is strong, and when the herd moves, it moves, Johnson observed in reference to members of his own ruling party who turned against him.
He tried to end his approximately six-minute speech on a positive note. “Our future together is golden, even though things often seem gloomy now.”
There are a tonne of tweets mocking PM Boris Johnson’s resignation on social media.
