He hung on to the end before finally being overthrown by his own party. Worn out by scandals, weakened by a series of unprecedented resignations, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, resolved on Thursday, July 7, to leave power, announcing his resignation as leader of the Conservative party. He will remain prime minister until a new leader is appointed.
“It is clearly the will of the Conservative Party that there is a new leader and therefore a new Prime Minister”he said at midday, during a six-minute speech, in front of Downing Street, saying to himself ” sad “ to leave “the best job in the world”. Acknowledging his failure, he nevertheless judged “that it would be crazy to change governments, when we are achieving so much, we have such a broad mandate and we are only a few points behind in the polls”.
“I am immensely proud of the achievements of this government: to have achieved Brexit, to have settled our relations with the continent, to have restored the power to this country to make its own laws”he greeted.
Exit the hero of Brexit
After three turbulent years in office, marked by Brexit which he championed, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and record inflation, Mr Johnson assured that whoever succeeds him would have ” everything [son] support “. The timetable for the election of a new Conservative leader will be specified next week, he added.
From Bali, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a possible candidate to succeed Mr Johnson, called for “calm and together”considering that the latter had “made the right decision”.
A YouGov poll of Conservative Party members gives Defense Secretary Ben Wallace the favorite to succeed Mr Johnson.
“We don’t need a change in the leadership of the Tories. We need a real change of government”had argued shortly before the leader of the opposition Keir Starmer, threatening to organize a vote of no confidence in the House, if Mr. Johnson remained in power.
Pushed out by his own government
Of a once stainless popularity, Boris Johnson had sunk in opinion polls: according to two polls this week, nearly 70% of Britons wanted him to leave.
Last month, he had escaped a vote of no confidence, 40% of Conservative MPs refusing, however, to give him their confidence.
Resignations and calls for Mr Johnson to leave had continued until his announcement on Thursday, as Downing Street announced a series of appointments to replace resigning ministers and secretaries of state.
Newly appointed Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi, appointed on Tuesday, had called on Boris Johnson to ” leave now “while Education Minister Michelle Donelan, also appointed on Tuesday, announced her resignation, saying she had no “no other choice”. In total, around sixty departures have been announced in the government since Tuesday, including five ministers, an exodus of unprecedented speed in British political history.
Again on Wednesday evening, several ministers went to Downing Street to try to convince Boris Johnson that, having lost the confidence of the Conservative Party, he should resign in his interest and that of the country.
Throughout the day, the 58-year-old prime minister hung on, saying he had a “colossal mandate” to accomplish, before retaliating by dismissing by telephone, Wednesday evening, the minister who had been the first to come to advise him to resign earlier in the day, Michael Gove, in charge of territorial rebalancing. In vain.
