Despite an avalanche of departures from his government due to a succession of scandals, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday rejected calls for the resignation coming in particular from his faithful, and dismissed one of his ministers.
A far cry from the triumph of his 2019 Downing Street debut under the promise of delivering Brexit, the Conservative leader faced the toughest day of his tenure on Wednesday, hemmed in by embarrassing cases and a flood of accusations of lies.
Several senior ministers – including loyal ones – have asked him to resign as the situation has become untenable, according to British media. Among the names cited are Home Secretary Priti Patel, as well as her finance counterpart, Nadhim Zahawi, who was named this week.
According to one of his advisers, Boris Johnson has also dismissed his minister Michael Gove, in charge of territorial rebalancing – one of the great promises of his government – who would have called him to leave.
Boris Johnson retorted in the morning to the deputies that he wanted to stay to devote himself “to the extremely important problems” facing the country. “We will continue with the government of this country,” said the British Prime Minister on Wednesday afternoon to the heads of parliamentary committees, moments after saying he was having a “tremendous” week.
Tuesday evening, without warning, the ministers of Health and Finance, Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak, slammed the door, triggering the hemorrhage. Other members of the government have in turn thrown in the towel.
Twenty-four hours later, the number of departures rose to around forty.
Boris Johnson remained combative. He judged that he would not be “responsible” to leave power in the current context, between purchasing power crisis and war in Ukraine. A little earlier, during the weekly question session in front of the deputies punctuated by laughter and mockery, the head of government had affirmed that the “colossal mandate” entrusted to him by the voters in 2019 conferred on him the duty to ” Continue “.
Opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer slammed an end-of-reign ‘pathetic spectacle’, while Scottish nationalist SNP leader in the House of Commons Ian Blackford demanded a snap election. An idea that Boris Johnson rejected out of hand.
“Bye Boris”
The resigning ministers had harsh words for the head of government, questioning his honesty.
In front of the deputies, Sajid Javid detailed the reasons for his departure, convinced that Boris Johnson would not change. “That’s enough,” he said, before some of his colleagues took up a mocking “bye Boris” launched by one of them.
The resignation of Mr Javid and that of his finance colleague was announced on Tuesday evening when Boris Johnson had just issued an apology after a new scandal. The Prime Minister admitted to having made a “mistake” in appointing Chris Pincher Deputy Chief Whip of the Conservative MPs last February. The latter resigned last week after being accused of touching two men. After claiming the opposite, Downing Street admitted on Tuesday that the Prime Minister had been informed as early as 2019 of old accusations against Mr. Pincher, but that he had “forgotten” them.
“Integrity” in question
For Mr. Javid, 52, the British are entitled to expect “integrity from their government”.
Boris Johnson quickly replaced the two resigners by appointing his Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi to Finance and Steve Barclay, hitherto in charge of government coordination, to Health.
According to a Savanta ComRes poll published on Wednesday, 72% of Britons believe the Prime Minister should resign.
Already significantly weakened by the scandal of illegal parties held in Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Johnson survived a vote of no confidence from his own camp a few weeks ago.
But according to the British press, behind the scenes, the anti-Johnson are maneuvering to allow a new vote quickly, by changing the current rule which protects the head of government for another 11 months. The election of the executive office of the powerful “Committee of 1922”, competent to decide the question, must be held on Monday.