(London) 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 from including his faithful, and sacked one of his ministers .
Updated yesterday at 4:58 p.m.
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 the faithful, have asked him to resign as the situation has become untenable, according to British media. Among the names cited, Interior Minister Priti Patel and Nadhim Zahawi, less than 24 hours after his appointment as Minister of Finance.
But as he had already done earlier in the day in front of the deputies, he retorted that he wanted to stay to devote himself “to the extremely important problems” facing the country, according to the press.
According to one of his advisers, Boris Johnson has sacked his minister Michael Gove, in charge of territorial rebalancing – one of the government’s great promises –. According to media, he had called Boris Johnson to leave.
“We will continue with the government of this country,” Boris Johnson said in the afternoon to the heads of parliamentary committees, moments after saying he was having a “tremendous” week.
Without warning, Health Ministers Sajid Javid and Finance Ministers Rishi Sunak slammed the door on Tuesday evening, triggering the haemorrhage. Other members of the government, of lower rank, have in turn thrown in the towel one after the other.
Wednesday evening, the number of departures amounted to forty, including the minister responsible for Wales Simon Hart.
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 launched, before some deputies resumed a mocking “bye Boris” launched by the One. Two.
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.
Mr. Johnson admitted having made a “mistake” in appointing Chris Pincher to his government in February, deputy chief “whip” in charge of parliamentary discipline for Conservative MPs. He 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 eleven months.
The election of the executive office of the powerful “Committee 1922”, competent to settle the question, must be held on Monday.