Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party’s leader, has decided to step down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and delay leaving office until October. Following persistent criticism from Tory MPs who indicated he must resign from office, he announced his resignation.
Many of Johnson’s ministers have recently resigned on moral grounds as a result of his involvement in numerous scandals.
Later in the day, the prime minister is anticipated to address his resignation. Up to the Conservative party conference in October, he will continue to serve as caretaker prime minister. In the best interests of his party and the UK, he resigns.
Johnson’s resignation brings to a close a career in politics during which he not only led the successful Vote Leave campaign to leave the EU in 2016 but also led the Conservative party to a historic general election victory in 2019.
His newly appointed chancellor Nadhim Zahawi’s request for him (Johnson) to resign served as the catalyst for him to step down. Zahawi is the second minister to publicly ask for the resignation of the prime minister as a result of this.
The attorney general, Suella Braverman, has also urged Boris to step down. This week, more than 50 MPs have resigned.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary and a devoted Johnson supporter in the past, announced his resignation on Thursday morning and claimed that the cabinet was no longer governed with “honesty, integrity, and mutual respect.”
Michelle Donelan, who took over as education secretary from Zahawi on Tuesday night, also announced her resignation. “I see no way that you can continue in post, but it seems that the only way this is only possible is for those of us who remain in Cabinet to force your hand,” she wrote. “Without a formal mechanism to remove you.”
Lewis was one of many Ministers who urged Boris Johnson to step down on Wednesday, but he resisted and said, “I have the mandate of the British people. I will not step down.”
However, the Prime Minister has now acknowledged that he will resign and will make a statement about it.
