Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused calls to step down and said he would “hang on” on Wednesday, even as his ministers were handing in resignations during the Prime Ministers’ Questions in the parliament.
The wave of resignations started on Tuesday evening with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid publishing their letters of resignation, saying they no longer have confidence in the PM, and stressing that the government must show integrity.
While neither of them specified the main reason for their resignations, they appear to have been prompted by the latest government scandal, as it became apparent that the PM was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against MP Christopher Pincher at the time he appointed him as Government Deputy Chief Whip.
Johnson initially claimed not to have been made aware of the allegations, later claiming he “forgot” about them, before ultimately admitting he was told about the allegations and conceding that he had made “a bad mistake” by not acting on them.
Most other senior ministers vowed to continue backing the PM – including deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg. However, a number of junior ministers and parliamentary private secretaries began sending their resignations during the morning and throughout the PMQs.
By the time the PM has finished answering the MPs’ questions, more than 20 ministers and PPS have resigned from the government, with more joining during Javid’s personal statement, in which he accused senior party figures, including Johnson, of “lying to his face” about the parties held in PM’s residence during coronavirus lockdowns.
In a farewell speech that apparently doubled as an initial leadership bid, Javid said that “threading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity” became impossible. He said he welcomed Johnson’s apology over the Pincher case but stressed that one reaches a point “where enough is enough”. “I fear that the reset button can only work so many times,” said Javid. “There’s only so many times you can turn that machine on and off before you realize something is fundamentally wrong. The problem starts at the top, and that is not going to change,” concluded Javid.
The Conservative party 1922 Committee, which initiates votes of no confidence against sitting party leaders, announced it would meet later in the afternoon to discuss a change in its rules so it could again call a no-confidence vote against Johnson, as the current rules make him immune to further contests for nearly a year, after narrowly winning a confidence vote last month.
With the confidence vote passed with a margin of only 63 votes, Johnson’s position is beginning to look shaky as the number of most recent resignations is approaching 32. As polls indicate Labour is now around ten points ahead of Conservatives, and an increasing number of party members are fearing they would suffer a humiliating defeat in the elections should Johnson remain in power.
If the 1922 Committee changes its VONC rules on Wednesday, a vote could be held as early as next week, with the party aiming to pick a new leader – and replacement PM – before the parliamentary break in August.
The Committee is reportedly favoring sending a delegation to Johnson, informing him that there is a majority of Tory MPs no longer supporting him, and calling on him to resign himself before a leadership vote is triggered.
Sources close to Johnson, however, indicate that the PM is unlikely to resign on his own, planning instead to trigger general elections if faced with an unwinnable leadership challenge, threatening to deselect all MPs who withhold their support for him, in a desperate gamble to win another mandate as a head of government, propped by a new batch of presumably more loyal MPs.
