LONDON — Senior ministers on Wednesday were
set to tell
Boris Johnson he must quit as prime minister, British media said,
after a spate of resignations from his scandal-hit government.
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A delegation was awaiting his return from a two-hour
grilling by a parliamentary committee to tell him his time was up, BBC, Sky
News and other outlets reported, without quoting sources.
The 58-year-old leader’s grip on power has been
slipping since Tuesday night, when Rishi Sunak resigned as finance minister and
Sajid Javid quit as health secretary.
Both said they could no longer tolerate the culture
of scandal that has dogged Johnson for months, including lockdown law-breaking
in Downing Street.
But at the parliamentary committee, and an earlier
question and answer session with MPs in parliament, he defiantly vowed to get
on with the job.
“I’m not going to give a running commentary on
political events,” he told the committee when asked about the cabinet
delegation.
“We’re going to get on with the government of the
country.”
He added: “What
we need is stable government, loving each other as Conservatives, getting on
with our priorities, that is what we need to do.”
Earlier, Javid urged other ministers to resign
saying “the problem starts at the top, and I believe that is not going to
change”.
“And that means that it is for those of us in that
position — who have responsibility — to make that change.”
Cries of “bye, Boris” echoed around the chamber at
the end of his speech. Most Tories were conspicuously silent when Johnson
attacked the Labour opposition at prime minister’s questions. Some shook their
heads.
‘Gone’
Sunak and Javid quit just
minutes after Johnson apologized for appointing a senior Conservative, who quit
his post last week after he was accused of groping two men.
Former education secretary
Nadhim Zahawi was
immediately handed the finance brief and acknowledged the uphill task ahead.
“You don’t go into this job to have an easy life,”
Zahawi told Sky News.
Days of shifting explanations had followed the
resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.
Downing Street at first denied Johnson knew of prior
allegations against Pincher when appointing him in February.
But by Tuesday, that defense had collapsed after a
former top civil servant said Johnson, as foreign minister, was told in 2019
about another incident involving his ally.
Minister for children and families Will Quince quit
early Wednesday, saying he was given the inaccurate information before having
to defend the government in a round of media interviews on Monday.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, one of Johnson’s most
strident critics, said the Pincher affair had tipped many over the edge, and
there were moves to get rid of Johnson by the end of this month.
Other senior cabinet ministers, including Foreign
Secretary Liz Truss and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, still publicly back
Johnson.
But as the resignations piled up, many were
wondering how long that may last.
A snap Savanta ComRes poll Wednesday indicated that
three in five Conservative voters say Johnson cannot re-gain the public’s
trust, while 72 percent of all voters think he should resign.
‘Local difficulties’
Johnson only narrowly
survived a no-confidence vote among Conservative MPs a month ago, which
ordinarily would mean he could not be challenged again for another year.
But the influential “1922 Committee” of
non-ministerial Tory MPs is reportedly seeking to change the rules, with its
executive committee meeting later Wednesday.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a doggedly loyal cabinet ally and
Johnson’s “minister for Brexit opportunities”, dismissed the resignations as
“little local difficulties”.
But Sunak’s departure in particular, in the middle
of policy differences over a cost-of-living crisis sweeping Britain, is dismal
news for Johnson.
The prime minister, who received a police fine for
the so-called “Partygate” affair, faces a parliamentary probe into whether he
lied to MPs about the revelations.
Pincher’s departure from the whips’ office — charged
with enforcing party discipline and standards — marked yet another allegation
of sexual misconduct by Tories in recent months, recalling the “sleaze” that
dogged John Major’s government in the 1990s.
Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned in April after
he was caught watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons.
That prompted a by-election in his previously safe
seat, which the party went on to lose in a historic victory for the opposition
Liberal Democrats.
Labour, the main opposition party, defeated the
Conservatives in another by-election in northern
England on the same day,
prompted by the conviction of its Tory MP for sexual assault.
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