LONDON — The ending, when it finally came, was as messy and breathtaking as any other chapter of Boris Johnson’s political career.
The prime minister sat in Downing Street on Wednesday night, facing an uprising by his cabinet, a catastrophic loss of support in his Conservative Party and a mass exodus of ministers, which threatened to leave large parts of the British government without functioning leadership.
But far from surrendering, Mr Johnson’s aides announced that he would continue to fight. It looked like a final roll of the dice by one of the great gamblers in British politics. His brazen refusal to acknowledge reality invited comparisons to Donald J. Trump’s resistance in the chaotic days following the 2020 presidential election.
But on Thursday morning, the political heaviness finally made itself felt again. For one of the few times in his career, Mr. Johnson was unable to turn the story in his favor by the sheer power of his personality; In the afternoon, outside his headquarters in Downing Street, he announced that he would relinquish the leadership of a party that no longer supported him and give up a job he had pursued for much of his adult life.
“I want to tell you how sorry I am to have to give up the best job in the world,” Mr Johnson said, “but those are the breaks.”
As the political post-mortems are written about Mr Johnson, the tumultuous events of the past week may begin to encapsulate his career – one marked by a gleeful disregard for the rules, a cunning instinct for public opinion, an elastic approach to ethics and a Falstaffian hunger for politics.
“Most prime ministers would have gotten the message sooner,” said Andrew Gimson, one of Mr Johnson’s biographers. “The element of exaggeration, of turning up the volume, is very characteristic of his style.”
But in the end, Mr Johnson’s willingness to take risks was not enough to make up for his arsenal of shortcomings. He exhibited behavior that critics say showed a sense of entitlement and a belief that the rules didn’t apply to him. Critics accused him of being disorganized, ideological and administrative.
After leading Britain out of the European Union in 2020, the prime minister didn’t have much plans for what to do next. He was soon held hostage by events, swinging from crisis to crisis as the coronavirus pandemic swept Britain, and presided over a scandal-soaked government.
Mr. Johnson had long prospered by pressing his nose at political conventions. His tousled blond hair seemed a metaphor for a messy personal and professional life, which some British voters enjoyed and others simply tolerated.
But Mr Johnson’s lack of truth eventually caught up with him. His constantly fluctuating statements about his behavior – whether it be attending illegal parties in Downing Street during lockdowns, trying to use a Tory party donor to fund the expensive renovation of his apartment, or promoting a conservative lawmaker with a history of sexual misconduct allegations against him – finally exhausted his party’s support and many voters.