British Prime Minister Boris Johnson clung to power on Wednesday, badly hurt by the resignation of ministers who said he was unfit to govern and with a growing number of lawmakers calling for him to leave.
Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote last month, giving him 12 months of immunity from another. But some lawmakers from his Conservative Party have been trying to change party rules to shorten that period of immunity.
Other lawmakers appealed to Johnson’s top team of cabinet ministers to move against him.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson struggles to stay in power after top ministers resign
Below are options for how Johnson could be pushed out and how the process for finding a replacement would work:
– Johnson could decide that he has lost the support of too many members of his party and cabinet and resign. He has so far shown no signs of being willing to do this.
– Several more cabinet members could resign and ask Johnson to leave, almost certainly forcing him to resign. However, media reports suggest that other senior cabinet members, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Leveling Up Secretary Michael Gove, will remain in place.
– Some lawmakers have been trying to change party rules so they can hold another vote of confidence sooner than is currently allowed. Elections for members of the so-called 1922 Committee, which sets the rules, will be held shortly.
If Johnson were pushed out, a process would take place to find a new leader. Here’s how that process, which is overseen by the 1922 Committee, is likely to work:
– Candidates running for leadership must be nominated by two other Conservative lawmakers. There could be a wide field of candidates.
– Conservative lawmakers then hold several rounds of voting to narrow down the number of candidates. Every time they are asked to vote for their favorite candidate in a secret ballot, and the person with the fewest votes is eliminated.
– This process is repeated until there are two candidates left. Previously, voting has been held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
– The final two candidates are then put to a postal vote by the broader Conservative Party membership, with the winner appointed as the new leader.
– The leader of the party with a majority in the House of Commons is the de facto prime minister. They don’t have to call early elections, but they have the power to do so.
How long will it all take?
The time the leadership contest takes can vary, depending on how many people show up. Theresa May became leader less than three weeks after her predecessor, David Cameron, quit in 2016 and all other contenders dropped out midway through the race.
Johnson ran against former health minister Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative members’ run-off to replace May in 2019 and took office two months after May announced her intention to step down.
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Alistair Smout, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Catherine Evans)