UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson vows to ‘keep going’ as dozens quit gov’t

Scandal-scarred British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to step down Wednesday as more ministers and aides handed in their resignations, bringing the running total to at least 43 members of the Conservative government.

Not even pleas for Johnson to leave office from some of his closest allies were enough to move the beleaguered prime minister, who faces the end of his time at the top of British politics over his handling of sexual misconduct allegations against a senior party official.

In the latest twist, Johnson fired Housing Minister Michael Gove after he joined calls for the prime minister to go.

“You can’t have a snake who is not with you on any of the big arguments who then gleefully tells the press the leader has to go,” the BBC quoted a source at No. 10 Downing Street as saying of Gove — a veteran of the Conservatives’ internecine wars who was previously dismissed from Cabinet jobs by both of Johnson’s predecessors, David Cameron and Theresa May.

“You can’t have that appalling behavior when you’re claiming to be a part of the team,” another Johnson ally told The Daily Telegraph. “At least the other people had the decency to resign.”

Depending on Johnson’s appetite for a political fight unprecedented in the history of British politics, he could remain in office through early next week, when a committee of Conservative back-benchers is expected to change party rules to allow a second no-confidence vote in as many months.

Johnson narrowly survived an initial vote last month amid fallout over Downing Street staff parties thrown during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns and under the current rules was safe from legal challenges for another year.

“The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when you’ve been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going,” Johnson told the House of Commons during the weekly ritual of Prime Minister’s Questions earlier Wednesday, where he was serenaded with cries of “Go! Go! Go!” from the opposition Labour Party.

“And that’s what I’m going to do,” the PM added. “We are going to get on and deliver our mandate and win another general election.”

But the Boris bluster could not hide the discontent among members of Johnson’s own party, one of whom directly asked whether there was anything that might prompt him to resign.

https://twitter.com/JacobYoungMP/status/1544767961134686209

“Clearly, if there were circumstances in which I felt it was impossible for the government to go on and discharge the mandate that we’ve been given, or if I felt, for instance, that we were being frustrated in our desire to support the Ukrainian people … then I would,” Johnson told Parliament.

However, when confronted by Cabinet colleagues at Downing Street Wednesday night, Johnson felt that time had not yet come.

According to Britain’s Press Association, the prime minister rejected suggestions he should seek a “dignified exit” and opted to fight for his political future, citing “hugely important issues facing the country.” The PA also cited a source close to Johnson as saying he told his colleagues there would be “chaos” if he quit.

Johnson also tried to reassert his authority by quickly appointing Nadhim Zahawi, a rising Conservative star, as finance minister after Rishi Sunak stepped down a day earlier.

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1544368323625947137

The departures of Sunak and Sajid Javid, secretary of state for health and social care, signaled that Johnson — described as the “greased piglet” of British politics for his seemingly inexhaustible ability to get out of tight corners — faced the most serious crisis of his premiership.

“Treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months,” Javid told a silent Parliament Wednesday, while Johnson listened.

Javid added that at some point people had to conclude that enough is enough, and “that point is now.”

In his Tuesday resignation letter, Javid said Johnson had lost the faith of both the public and lawmakers that the government was acting in the “national interest.”

“I regret to say … that it is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership – and you have therefore lost my confidence too,” Javid wrote in the letter, which was posted to Twitter. 

“I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their government,” added Javid, who said he could not continue “in good conscience” to be part of the government.

https://twitter.com/sajidjavid/status/1544366218789937152

Sunak took a shot at Johnson in his own resignation letter, saying the public expects “government to be conducted properly, competent and seriously.”

“I recognize this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I’m resigning,” Sunak said.

As Johnson dug in, critics accused him of refusing to accept the inevitable and of behaving more like a president than a prime minister by referring to his “mandate” from the 2019 election, which the Conservatives won with a majority of 80 House of Commons seats.

“It’s a bit like the death of Rasputin: He’s been poisoned, stabbed, he’s been shot, his body’s been dumped in a freezing river, and still he lives,” former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell told the BBC. “But this is an abnormal prime minister, a brilliantly charismatic, very funny, very amusing, big, big character. But I’m afraid he has neither the character nor the temperament to be our prime minister.”

With Post wires