Boris Johnson, prime minister of the UK, has resigned in the midst of a whirlwind week for the government. He announced that he wants to stay on at 10 Downing Street until the Conservative Party chooses a new leader.
The Spectator, the UK’s longest-running and leading center-right magazine, is keeping up with today’s wild events on its liveblog, which is essential reading for anyone who’s following this story.
The abrupt resignation came after a wave of resignations by members of Parliament (MPs).
“The PM’s downfall was brought about after a record number of resignations,” writes Michael Simmons at the Spectator. “Since Tuesday over 100 cabinet secretaries, ministers and PPSs have resigned. On Wednesday alone some 50 MPs resigned from ministerial and party positions – the most in a single day since the 1930s.”
Conservatives may not be too happy at the idea of Johnson staying on for much longer as a lame-duck PM.
“Boris Johnson may be on the way out – but he’s not quite done yet. The Prime Minister is keen to [stay] in Downing Street over the summer – an idea many of his MPs have already taken umbrage with,” writes the Spectator‘s Katy Balls.
Earlier this week, my PJM colleague Rick Moran saw all of this coming when he wrote, “Conservative politicians are nervous and would love to jettison Johnson. But Johnson survived a ‘no-confidence’ vote in June, and parliamentary rules say that he’s immune from another challenge for 12 months — unless the Conservatives change the rules. With that possibility, Johnson may decide to avoid the humiliation and resign.”
Johnson gave his speech earlier this morning, which isn’t likely to endear him to Tories in Parliament.
"Them's the breaks"
Boris Johnson announces his resignation as Tory leader, describing being UK prime minister as the "best job in the world"
He says he will continue to serve in office until a new leader is electedhttps://t.co/qiq4yHpPpB pic.twitter.com/5wgyTpa7aN
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 7, 2022
“He has set up a betrayal narrative, pointedly thanking the British public but not his own party for his time in office, and saying it would be ‘eccentric’ to change leader when the Conservative party is only a few points behind in the polls,” writes Isabel Hardman at the Spectator.
“He talked about his ‘duty’ to stay on in government and claimed that this was the reason he had tried to stay in place,” she continues. “It was very difficult to see many Conservative MPs agreeing with that line of reasoning before this speech. The way he talked about the party today will have made that even less likely.”
This is a breaking situation, and we’ll update it if anything earth-shattering happens.
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