Boris Johnson has resigned as UK Prime Minister

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced on Thursday his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, but will remain as head of the government of the United Kingdom until his successor is named. Three years after coming to power triumphantly, Johnson, 58, was forced to resign after losing the support of his party in the wake of relentless scandals.

Dowing Street announced shortly after that the head of government will address the British this Thursday.

The prospect of his departure is “good news”, said the leader of the opposition, Labor Keir Starmer, but considered that it is not enough: “We need a real change of government”, he added. Events accelerated this Thursday, when more than 50 members of the Johnson government have already resigned in an incessant bloodletting that began on Tuesday afternoon with two heavyweights: Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Minister Sajid Javid.

On Thursday, the new finance minister, Nadhim Zahawi, appointed on the same Tuesday, joined those who called on the prime minister to leave. “You know in your heart what is right, go now,” he wrote in a letter posted on Twitter.

Michelle Donelan, also appointed to the education portfolio on Tuesday to replace Zahawi, also tendered her resignation less than two days later.

“A decent and responsible government is based on honesty, integrity and mutual respect,” said the minister of Northern Ireland, the hitherto loyal Brandon Lewis, adding his name to the list of resigners. “I deeply regret having to leave government because I believe these values ​​are no longer respected,” he added.

Disgraced Electoral Champion

Johnson had made the multiple scandals that surround him forget for a few months thanks to his determined action in helping Ukraine against the Russian invasion. The Kremlin said on Thursday that it expected “more professional people” to come to power in the UK. In early June, Johnson survived a no-confidence vote by his own MPs, with the support of 211 of his 359 lawmakers, but the 148 votes against him made it clear that discontent was growing. According to British media, he would now only have the support of 65 deputies.

The norms of the Conservative Party establish that this procedure cannot be repeated in a year. But many called for a change to immediately try another maneuver against him.

From the so-called “partygate” -the scandal over the parties organized in Downing Street during the confinements of 2020 and 2021-, to the irregular financing of the luxurious reform of his official residence, going through accusations of cronyism, the scandals around Johnson They multiply. The resignations of Javid and Sunak took place hours after Johnson apologized for the umpteenth time, acknowledging that he made a “mistake” by appointing Chris Pincher, a Conservative official who resigned last week accused of groping two men, one of them deputy.

Having claimed otherwise, Downing Street acknowledged on Tuesday that the prime minister had been informed in 2019 of earlier allegations against Pincher but had “forgotten” them. Champion of the 2019 legislative elections, when he achieved the most important conservative majority in decades thanks to the promise to carry out Brexit, the prime minister is now plummeting in the polls.

According to polls, a majority of Britons consider him a “liar”.

It must be investigated by a parliamentary commission to determine if it knowingly deceived the deputies when in December it denied the celebration of parties that violated the anticovid legislation.

And the fact that he claimed to be unaware of the accusations against Pincher, when many claimed otherwise, and ended up acknowledging his “forgetfulness”, reinforces the accusations that the prime minister is playing with the truth.

Recent electoral setbacks, the latest on June 23, in two midterm elections, have convinced a growing number of rebels in the Conservative Party that Johnson can no longer lead them to a new general election in 2024.

Johnson if he resisted

Showing that he did not want to go without a fight, Johnson had dismissed on Wednesday night the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Michael Gove, his right-hand man in the 2016 campaign for Brexit, who asked him to resign for the good of the party and from the country. Late in the afternoon, a group of faithful collaborators, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, had gone to Downing Street to ask him to accept that, without the support of training, he could no longer continue.

According to The Sun newspaper, the prime minister told his colleagues that they would have to get “blood on their hands” to remove him from office.

But on Thursday, the front pages of the British press highlighted the untenable situation in which he found himself. The Conservative-friendly Daily Express referred to Johnson’s “last stand” and the Daily Telegraph called the prime minister “mortally wounded.”