UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Clings To Power Despite Over 40 Resignations

[ZariusTwo]

Boris Johnson is still prime minister this morning despite a cabinet revolt, more than 40 of his own MPs quitting their government roles and at least one senior Tory saying they'd be willing to run for the party leadership.

The prime minister dramatically sacked Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove late on Wednesday evening after it was understood that he, along with other members of Mr Johnson's top team, told the PM he should listen to the overwhelming view of the Conservative Party and stand down.

Mr Gove is believed to have been joined by loyal supporter of Mr Johnson, Home Secretary Priti Patel, new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in calling for Mr Johnson to step aside at a stand off in Number 10.

But, resisting their calls, the PM's parliamentary private secretary James Duddridge told Sky News that Mr Johnson is "in a buoyant mood" and "will fight on".

Meanwhile, a senior Number 10 source told Sky News that Mr Johnson is "absolutely defiant" and "does not intend to resign" despite some of his most loyal cabinet ministers joining calls for him to quit.

Cabinet minister Mr Hart later resigned from the government having failed to persuade Mr Johnson to step down.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart arrives in Downing Street, for a Cabinet meeting, for the first time since the lockdown, to be held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 21, 2020. The meeting in the FCO will take place in a ventilated room in the Foreign Office large enough to allow ministers to sit at least one metre apart.

In his resignation letter, the Welsh secretary said he wanted to help Mr Johnson "turn the ship around" but "we have passed the point where this is possible".

Also quitting, health minister Ed Argar, wrote to the PM: "I fear that a change is needed in order for our party to continue on our shared ambitions for our country."

Ms Patel, Mr Zahawi, Mr Hart and Mr Shapps were also joined by Policing minister Kit Malthouse, new Education Secretary Michelle Donelan and Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris in Number 10 where they were believed to have told the PM in that his position was untenable.

Sky News' deputy political editor Sam Coates understood the group delivered a "final ultimatum" to Mr Johnson, saying "you go or we do".

Analysis: The end of days for this 'delusional' PM

Attorney General Suella Braverman, who has previously been a Mr Johnson loyalist, later also told ITV's Robert Peston: "I do think the time has come for the prime minister to step down."

Asked if she had ever thought about standing for PM, Ms Braverman replied: "Yes, I will."

Suella Braverman has said she will run for the leadership Pic: AP
Image:
Suella Braverman has said she will run for the leadership Pic: AP
'Sinking ships fleeing the rat'

As of Wednesday evening, a total of 46 individuals had quit their government posts as support for the PM's leadership collapsed at Westminster.

The avalanche began with the shock resignations of Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday evening after Downing Street admitted Mr Johnson had known about allegations of inappropriate behaviour by disgraced MP Chris Pincher in 2019 before hiring him as deputy chief whip in February.

Mr Pincher resigned from the role last week after further allegations that he groped two men at a private club in London, and he was later suspended from the Conservative Party.

But, despite the mood among Conservative MPs firmly moving against him, Mr Johnson rejected suggestions he should seek a "more dignified exit" and will instead fight for his political future - something which could trigger further cabinet resignations today.

Mr Zahawi, only appointed as chancellor on Tuesday evening following Mr Sunak's sudden resignation, is not believed to be considering quitting despite calling for the PM to stand aside.

A source close to Mr Zahawi told Sky News that the chancellor will not be resigning and that he wants to focus on lowering the tax burden and help with easing the burden of the cost of living crisis.

Other cabinet ministers have expressed their continued support for the PM.

Leaving Whitehall on Wednesday evening, Jacob Rees-Mogg said that Mr Johnson has his "full support".

Meanwhile, asked if she was still supporting the PM, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries replied: "Definitely".

At PMQs yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer attacked the PM over his handling of the scandal regarding Mr Pincher, reading out the accusations levelled at the former deputy chief whip as a "reminder to all those propping up this prime minister just how serious the situation is".

In fiery exchanges, the Labour leader said the list of resignations had left him with a "z list cast of nodding dogs" on his frontbench, and that "sinking ships [are] fleeing the rat".

But Mr Johnson insisted: "The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going, and that's what I am going to do."

Britain's Justice Secretary Michael Gove (L) prepares to speak after Vote Leave campaign leader Boris Johnson, at the group's headquarters in London, Britain June 24, 2016. REUTERS/Mary Turner/Pool
7:53
Play Video - Boris Johnson sacks Michael Gove
The Prime Minister has sacked Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove from his cabinet.
PM's position 'untenable'

In his second probe of the day, the PM gave evidence to the Liaison Committee over in the House of Commons where he insisted to its members that he will stay in power as it is not "responsible just to walk away".

Mr Johnson said he would "of course" still be prime minister on Thursday despite facing mounting resignation letters.

Meanwhile, William Wragg, a Tory MP who described the PM's position as "untenable" in January, asked Mr Johnson: "At which point does it become impossible for the Queen's government to be continued?"

The PM replied that governments cannot solve problems by "threatening to call elections".

More resignations could follow today after the sacking of Mr Gove.

Following the levelling up secretary's sacking, senior Conservative MP Huw Merriman tweeted: "My sincere hope is that the PM latches on to some dignity."

Fellow senior Tory Sir Bob Neill added: "Our country is being made a laughing stock by one person's obsessive selfishness."

Meanwhile, the executive of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee met to discuss whether to change the rules to allow a fresh confidence vote in the prime minister to take place.

At present, the rules state a prime minister is immune from a second confidence vote until twelve months have passed since the first.

The influential group decided it would hold elections for a new executive on Monday, and they could decide on any rule change the very same night.

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford predicted to Sky News that the prime minister will be "dragged out next week" by his own MPs when the 1922 Committee is expected to change rules around confidence votes.

The question now is whether Mr Johnson can hold onto his role until then.

https://news.sky.com/story/boris-joh...-ring-12647189

[ZariusTwo]

And he's now resigned.

[Vegita-San]

didn't know they hated conservatives in uk too. so what did he do wrong?

[Autbot_Benz]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

And he's now resigned.

At least he has more time now to go back to Peppa Pig World

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

didn't know they hated conservatives in uk too. so what did he do wrong?

He didn't neccessarily do anything wrong. This is another complex example of people virtue-signaling to onboard with the witch-hunt called cancel culture. And within the framework of that precise description this is a disgusting development. I say this in principle, not in support of Boris Johnson.

The very short of it is that Johnson's "MP" - a sort of nonsense British cabinet posting - Johnson's MP went to a bar where he got drunk and grabbed two guys' in the crotch or some foolishness like that. He came back to work and fessed up to what he did, said it was dumb and he didn't get fired for it.

So basically various cabinet members began resigning over how this was handled and it caught on. The question you have to ask yourself is "did it catch on because the resigners are so deep in their convictions" or "did it catch on as a method of personal virtue-signaling or fear of not signaling to the public"?

Either way, Johnson saw such a significant reduction in his staff that some of the governing bodies became unable to make decisions to facilitate their function. Johnson pushed back at first, but ultimately has now resigned.

So basically cancel culture cancelled a President for not firing someone who got drunk at a bar and acted like an @$$hole one night. Evidence that the witch-hunt of the life-angry will come for anyone, even if someone is several ways removed from the actual event trigger.

[Sumac]

Johnson had a mark on his back since the beginning. SJW trash hated him for supporting Brexit and in general being Conservative, especially after they beloved Progressive darling lost elections. So basically an eye for an eye.

I am interested to see who will lead Conservatives in UK from now on, hopefully someone better than the guy who leads an opposition.

[Andrew NDB]

From what I gather he'd just as soon be done with the job, anyway?

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by IMJ

He didn't neccessarily do anything wrong

Boris has a very checkered history of sus behaviour and career blundering. The Pincher scandal was the last straw. He had only barely managed to survive a no-confidence vote last month, and that was only because it was held while a good deal of the house were still on holiday and couldn't make it back in time to vote.

Partygate, breaking the ministerial code to cover up bullying, his numerous affairs. He was an untenable prime minister several times over.

[Vegita-San]

It's REALLY sad state of affairs when you have to go to a message board about mutated green turtles that know ninjitsu to get the truth of what's going on. I'll let that sink in for a while for our friends on the left .

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

didn't know they hated conservatives in uk too. so what did he do wrong?

Many things have gone wrong recently. MPs were having parties and gatherings when the country was supposed to be in lockdown. He's currently being investigated by a committee over whether he lied to Parliament that there were no breaches of lockdown.

There was a Conservative MP that resigned because he was looking at porn in Parliament. This led to a by-election and losing a seat to the Liberal Democrats. They also lost another seat to Labour. Conservatives also lost many votes in the recent local elections.

There was a Vote of No Confidence which Boris won, but a lot of his MPs wanted him gone.

[Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

didn't know they hated conservatives in uk too. so what did he do wrong?

Where do I begin? his whole tenure has been a shitshow. This was the final huge straw that broke the camels back. Aside from the lies over Brexit, the poor handling of the COVID crisis and surrounding his cabinet with some vile creatures (Priti Patel, Jeremy Hunt, Nick Hancock, Rees-Mogg, Liz Truss and even Pob, I mean Gove), it really got rolling with Partygate, the revelation MPs were having parties and celebrations and gatherings while everyone else was told they must be in lockdown, can’t socialise and see anyone.

Btw the Conservative party here is positioned roughly on the political spectrum where the Democrats sit in the US, somewhat right of centre. Republicans are way further right than either.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

didn't know they hated conservatives in uk too. so what did he do wrong?

He's been treated to a phenomenally easy ride his during his time in the spotlight. Even when fired as a journalist for making up a quote, conspiring with a someone to get another journalist beaten up (there's recording of him trying to arrange this) tons of racism, sexism and homophobic comments over the years. He's also got a very sketchy personal life; as the head of the Bullingdon club he would vandalise restaurants and burn £50 notes in front of homeless people for fun. He's also cheated on every wife he's had included his last one while she had cancer. Still for decades he's treated by even the liberal media as something of a naughty scamp.

He's had multiple high profile mistakes while Prime Minister but nothing really stuck to him. I think the tide started to turn for him when he tried to change Parliamentary rules to protect one of his MPs (Owen Paterson) over breaking lobbying laws. In the grand scheme of his corruption this was a small thing but it started the media taking his behavior seriously.

Then the big thing was that it was alleged that while Britain was in COVID lockdown with fines issued to people who were caught simply socialising too close to people outside their households or loitering outside too long they were having regular parties at 10 Downing including some that he attended and even threw himself. These included a rave that had case loads of booze wheeled in on the night that the Queen was burying her husband and forced to sit alone due to COVID rules (as you might imagine this didn't sit well with traditional conservatives) and an ABBA themed karaoke night. When questioned at PMQs he would spin all manner of excuses but as more receipts came out it was clear he was lying. While not a rule it is tradition that if you knowingly lie to Parliament you have to resign however he was adamant he would remain in office.

The latest scandal involves him promoting an MP (Chris Pincher) that was alleged by many other MPs as having groped them. As you might imagine Boris denied any knowledge of this but it became clear that his behavior had been known for over two years and ignored by Boris. Again this may seem like a small scandal but it was straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of his fellow MPs that are starting to look at him as an electoral liability. There's also some reports of more scandals waiting to be proven about him so they don't want the risk of him still being leader when the media proves them. Thus a record number of 57 of his own MPs have resigned from their positions making it almost impossible for him to govern.

Despite this he refused to step down leading to very undignified scenes of many of colleagues telling the jog was up. This morning he announced his resignation (without using the word 'resigned') and made a speech that was mostly veiled insults at his own MPs he feel had betrayed him. He said he will step down as soon as a new leader is chosen - it's clear he wants that process to be as a long as possible. His former aid has claimed he will use that time to try and change his fortunes and stay on even if it's highly unlikely to work.

[Chris]

His lies finally caught up to him enough that he became an electoral liability rather than an asset, simple as that.

He had the biggest majority in decades to the extent that opposition parties couldn't touch him so his downfall is completely of his own making.

It's nothing to do with virtue signaling or SJW, those who forced him out this week are his own party who have supported him through every previous scandal. They didn't suddenly realise he was a liar, corrupt, and unfit for office. They knew what he was when they handed him the keys. It just became clear that the public were, finally, fed up with his bull**** and he was putting their careers at risk. It wasn't one incident, it was a pattern of behaviour of sending his ministers out on TV every morning after a scandal (there have been plenty) to say one thing before evidence proved another that afternoon. Rinse and repeat.

Good riddance. Just a shame he won't take the hint that "leave means leave".

[Sumac]

I always thought of Johnson as a harmless goof.
I mean, he is a corrupted politician who abuses his powers and flaunts his wealth, but so most other politicians. At least he was entertaining and a great support of Ukraine, even for selfish reasons.

So I am neutral about him.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Boris has a very checkered history of sus behaviour and career blundering. The Pincher scandal was the last straw. He had only barely managed to survive a no-confidence vote last month, and that was only because it was held while a good deal of the house were still on holiday and couldn't make it back in time to vote.

Partygate, breaking the ministerial code to cover up bullying, his numerous affairs. He was an untenable prime minister several times over.

I'm sure there is a greater..... zeitgeist... to his time in office, but my "he didn't really do anything wrong" comment was more in connection to the MP story which seemed to be the final catalyst for the resignations.

I only know enough to probably be only slightly more informed than the average American about the entirety of the Johnson situation. I'd argue that most people, even in the U.K., might not be able to articulate on Brexit, let alone the totality of Johnson's "Presidency".

What I really wish is that I had a good enough grasp of the reality in Britain so as to make a valid judgement regarding the public opinion of Johnson over there. For example, I can do that here for Trump very cleanly when I assign a lot of the hate to the mob and life-angry mentality moreso than anything Trump actually did. I.... don't know so much about the situation over there. I do know though that I don't trust almost anyone's opinion on it because as we've seen here, people exploit their hate as necessary for the witch-hunt and to prevail over integrity and truth of a situation; and they act like their are right to do it.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Sumac

I always thought of Johnson as a harmless goof.
I mean, he is a corrupted politician who abuses his powers and flaunts his wealth, but so most other politicians. At least he was entertaining and a great support of Ukraine, even for selfish reasons.

So I am neutral about him.

Harmless goof on the backbenches and presenting Have I Got News For You, not so much when in office with actual power.

Most politicians are very adept at the old Obi-Wan Kenobi “true from a certain point of view” and using half-truths, omissions, manipulated stats, etc. Johnson would go on live TV and swear the sky was green and the grass was blue one day then swear he never said that the next, it was exhausting to be honest. The corruption was sustained and just brazen with his apparent belief that rules didn’t/shouldn’t apply to him and his allies.

On Ukraine he has been a strong ally, but so would any PM. And there were actually a few articles noting that the vast majority of his calls and visits with Ukraine came within a day of a scandal at home. The support is good (and should continue), but, like you say, there were definitely some selfish reasons.

Originally Posted by IMJ

I'm sure there is a greater..... zeitgeist... to his time in office, but my "he didn't really do anything wrong" comment was more in connection to the MP story which seemed to be the final catalyst for the resignations.

I only know enough to probably be only slightly more informed than the average American about the entirety of the Johnson situation. I'd argue that most people, even in the U.K., might not be able to articulate on Brexit, let alone the totality of Johnson's "Presidency".

What I really wish is that I had a good enough grasp of the reality in Britain so as to make a valid judgement regarding the public opinion of Johnson over there. For example, I can do that here for Trump very cleanly when I assign a lot of the hate to the mob and life-angry mentality moreso than anything Trump actually did. I.... don't know so much about the situation over there. I do know though that I don't trust almost anyone's opinion on it because as we've seen here, people exploit their hate as necessary for the witch-hunt and to prevail over integrity and truth of a situation; and they act like their are right to do it.

Leaving aside that putting someone with known and upheld allegations of sexual assault (because legally that is what it is) in a position of power IS doing something wrong, see my earlier post. The Pincher scandal itself wouldn’t have brought him down, but it followed a pattern of behaviour that had turned the country against him.

How to handle covid split people here as it did in the US. But, regardless of which side of that divide people fell on, the initial vaccine rollout here went well and he got a big popularity boost from it (sufficient to make up for any dip due to things he did less well, to be generous). BUT then partygate happened. Whilst most people were obeying the rules (whether they wanted to or not in cases like funerals and saying goodbye in hospitals) Downing Street were having parties. It wasn’t a left/right divide, everyone was furious.

So Johnson did what he always did. He lied. There were no parties. Then proof came out there were. So he didn’t know about them. Then proof came out that he did know and he was there. So he claimed he thought it was a work event, etc. At every stage he sent ministers on to TV to repeat the party line only for it to be proven lies almost immediately after. Two of the parties were the night before the Queen sat alone at her husband’s funeral. The Queen, it turns out, was offered an exemption from the rules and the ability to have full funeral, but turned it down to show that even she was not above the rules. It went to a internal enquiry that then went to a police investigation. Downing Street received more fines for breaking covid rules than any other address in the country. Johnson was fined. He’s still under investigation for misleading Parliament for it.

Any other PM in history would have gone the moment they got the fine and it was proven they lied to the House of Commons (a resigning issue under Ministerial Code but PM has final say so Johnson essentially let himself off and said let’s move on).

There have been a series of other scandals, notable ones being the Health Secretary breaking covid rules and getting his party to vote for a rule change to overturn an MPs suspension for breaking Parliamentary rules (in this instance on lobbying). In both cases he “considered the matter closed”, sent ministers on TV to support the party line, then u-turned almost immediately in the face of public outcry.

The sum of it all was an increasing feeling that it was one rule for them and one rule for everyone else. That the Tories, and Johnson in particular, saw themselves as above the rules. We weren’t all in it together. They partied whilst we said goodbye to relatives over zoom.

That is what truly did him in. No one trusted a word he said anymore so why should the country follow him? It led to several disastrous by-elections, a no confidence vote called by his party (which he won but by worse levels than any of his recent predecessors).

The cost of living crisis only served to increase the feeling that Johnson and his mates were out of touch with the needs of ordinary people.

Then, finally, came the Pincher scandal. Rinse and repeat the same process as partygate. I didn’t know. Proven he did. I did know but not of specific allegations/details. Proven he did. Etc. Each time he sent ministers on to TV to lie for him, only to back down and tell another lie hours later, until finally the lies ran out.

Only this time his party didn’t stand behind him. They knew the public mood had turned following partygate, the by-elections proved that public anger hadn’t gone away and all polls showed their massive win turning into a massive loss at the next election. Johnson had turned from a vote winner to a vote loser. So they turned on him. It wasn’t that this scandal was any worse than the ones before, it just came at a point where they knew the tide of public opinion had changed and wasn’t changing back so the choice was oust him or go down with him at the next election because he had made it very clear he wasn’t changing how he did things and he wasn’t going of his own accord.

[Mayhem]

I could write some stuff but basically Chris has summarised it quite adequately. The party is getting rid of him because he's now a liability. The missus said it's quite similar to how Churchill was originally ousted, except Churchill had some integrity, he instead just rubbed lots of people up the wrong way rather than lying and denying.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I only know enough to probably be only slightly more informed than the average American about the entirety of the Johnson situation.

He's gone now. After the committee investigation, he quit as an MP, since he likely would have been suspended anyway. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65961889