One more scandal: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns

LONDON –

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday amid a mass revolt by top members of his government, marking the end of three tumultuous years in power in which he brazenly bent and at times broke the rules of politics. British.

Months of defiance almost ended with a shrug when Johnson stood outside 10 Downing St. and admitted his party wanted him gone.

“They are the breaks,” he said.

The brash 58-year-old politician who took Britain out of the European Union and led it through COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine was brought down by one more scandal: this one involved the appointment of a politician who had been accused of misconduct. inappropriate sex.

The messiest of prime ministers did not go away cleanly. Johnson immediately resigned as leader of the Conservative Party but said he would remain prime minister until the party chooses his successor. The timeline for that process will be announced next week, he said.

But many in the party want him gone before then, and his government has been shattered by dozens of resignations.

Among the possible candidates to succeed him: former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

After the latest scandal broke, Johnson clung to power for days, defiantly telling lawmakers on Wednesday that he had a “colossal mandate” from voters and that he intended to get on with the business of governing.

But he was forced to concede defeat on Thursday morning after one of his closest allies, newly appointed Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi, publicly told him to step down for the good of the country.

“Over the last few days, I have tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we are delivering so much and when we have such a broad mandate,” Johnson said. “I’m sorry I didn’t succeed in those arguments, and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects.”

Some 50 cabinet secretaries, ministers and lower-level officials had quit the government in recent days, often criticizing the prime minister for his lack of integrity.

Mass resignations had stalled the work of some parliamentary committees because no ministers were available to speak on behalf of the government.

“It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said.

Zahawi, who was promoted earlier this week as Johnson tried to shore up his cabinet, said he and a group of colleagues privately raised their concerns with the prime minister on Wednesday and decided to go public after Johnson ignored advice to resign.

“The country deserves a government that is not only stable but acts with integrity,” Zahawi said in a letter posted on Twitter.

It was a humiliating defeat for Johnson, who not only delivered Brexit but has also been credited with launching one of the world’s most successful mass vaccination campaigns to combat COVID-19.

But the perpetually disheveled, disheveled-haired leader, known for responding to his critics with bombast and bravado, was also dogged by accusations that he behaved as if the rules didn’t apply to him.

He managed to stay in power despite accusations that he was too close to the party’s donors, that he shielded supporters from accusations of intimidation and corruption, and that he misled Parliament about the government office parties he they violated the COVID-19 lockdown rules.

He was fined by police over the parties and survived a no-confidence motion last month in Parliament in which 41% of Conservative lawmakers tried to unseat him.

Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, replacing Theresa May, who resigned after Parliament rejected the Brexit deal she negotiated with the EU. Johnson pushed for his own Brexit deal in an often messy and turbulent debate.

With his shock of unruly blond hair, he often looked like a schoolboy who had just rolled out of bed and rushed to class in his pajamas under his clothes.

In his rise to power, he displayed many of the same habits and skills that would get him far but also spell his downfall: he was an enthusiastic, attention-loving mayor of London; a journalist who was fired for fabricating a quote and published exaggerated stories about EU excesses; and a politician with a talent honed at Eton and Oxford for colorful language and the push and pull of debate.

He became known for his slight respect for the truth and his simplistic and offensive markings. He called the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea cannibals and likened Muslim women wearing face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”

Recent revelations that Johnson knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a Conservative lawmaker before he promoted him to a senior government post turned out to be one more scandal.

The crisis began when Chris Pincher resigned as deputy whip chief amid allegations that he had groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations against Pincher.

Johnson offered varying explanations about what he knew and when he knew it. That only increased the feeling that he could not trust the prime minister.

Javid and Sunak resigned within minutes of each other on Tuesday night, triggering a wave of departures among their cabinet colleagues and lower-ranking officials and sparking a crisis in the government.

Javid said Johnson’s actions threatened to undermine the integrity of the Conservative Party and the British government.

“At some point we have to conclude that enough is enough,” he told the House of Commons on Wednesday. “I think that point is now.”

Bernard Jenkin, a senior Conservative Party lawmaker, told the BBC that he met with Johnson later that day and advised him to resign.

“I just told him, ‘Look, it’s only when you leave now, and that’s how you leave. You can leave with some dignity or you can be kicked out like Donald Trump, holding on to power and pretending you’ve won the election when you’ve lost.’ . Jenkins said.

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