Boris Johnson: Replacement candidates to step down as prime minister
However, the prominent Brexiteer believes that the Prime Minister was undone by his “chaotic” approach to the job – though she insisted he was NOT a serial liar. Mr Johnson resigned today (Thurs) after a series of ministerial resignations triggered by his admission that he was a Tory MP Chris Pincher deputy head whip despite being told of a complaint of misconduct against him. Pincher faces new allegations of sexual assault related to incidents at the Carlton Club, which led to his own resignation last week.
The Prime Minister announced his decision in a short statement delivered over lunch outside Downing Street, stressing that he is “hugely proud of the achievements of this government”, from getting Brexit done to helping the UK by the pandemic and leading the West by standing up. against Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. He further expressed his determination to remain in office until the results of the forthcoming Conservative Party leadership elections in October.
All last night, news from Number 10 suggested he was determined to continue, but Mrs Widdecombe, who was an MP during the last days of Margaret Thatcher’s Premiership in 1990, dismissed all comparisons between the two situations.
She said: “There are no real parallels. She had been in power with Mrs Thatcher for 11 years. Boris has been in power for two years.
“It’s a very different situation and most of it was picked up with Covid.
Boris Johnson gives his speech, watched by, among others, wife Carrie and Nadine Dorries (Image: GETTY)
Ann Widdecombe is a former Conservative minister (Image: GETTY)
“I think he was right to try to hold on, but I think from yesterday afternoon I thought it was a doomed attempt.”
She added: “I think Boris has been misjudged. I don’t think he’s a serial liar, I think he’s just chaotic.
“He was a really successful Mayor of London because he had a very good and very competent organization around him.
“And he started well enough as Prime Minister because he had Dominic Cummings, who had a good handle on Downing Street.
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Dominic Cummings, former special counsel to Mr. Johnson (Image: GETTY)
“Since Dominic, no one has heard him say, ‘Shut up, Prime Minister. Don’t make statements, don’t say anything until we know exactly what’s going on.’
“While he’s blundering in and saying something and like most of us, if you say something on a whim, you have to clarify it later, but that doesn’t mean you did it intentionally.”
Asked about his vow to remain in office, which has sparked criticism even from some Tory MPs, she said: “It is very practical for him to remain in office until October: all leaders have overseen the election of their successor .
“Call me a prime minister who has just left. Just because he resigned doesn’t mean he’ll leave number 10 that day and ride into the sunset.
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Boris Johnson has vowed to remain prime minister until the Tories elect a new leader (Image: GETTY)
Boris Johnson outside number 10 during lunch (Image: GETTY)
She dismissed concerns about his government’s effectiveness in the wake of his announcement, saying: ‘Now that he’s gone, we have a functioning government in this country, because they will continue as usual.
“He will fill the cabinet and what they are doing with the Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS) is frankly neither here nor there.
“Nevertheless, this has been tremendously harmful to the country, harmful to the country, harmful to Ukraine – Zelensky would not have wanted him to go – undeniably harmful to the party and harmful to everything.”
Several ministers – including Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed chancellor only two days earlier after Rishi Sunak’s resignation – had no choice but to tell him to quit, Ms Widdecombe stressed.
Fact File British Prime Ministers (Image: Express)
She said: “I think everyone just got on stage where they couldn’t see a way out and friends told him that’s it.
“Nevertheless, his cabinet has a job to do and they will do it until someone else is elected and a new government is established.”
Ms Widdecombe said six months ago she would never have predicted that Mr Johnson’s time as Prime Minister would have ended so quickly, blaming his haphazard approach.
She said: “I think he says things believing they were true at the time, but because he’s thinking about 100 other things, he hasn’t thought about it enough, then he says something that contradicts that and he says, ‘ I’m sorry ‘I should have said this’.
Margaret Thatcher leaves Downing Street for the last time in 1990 (Image: GETTY)
“And then five minutes later he says something else, and it looks terrible.
“But everyone knows the guy knows he’s just chaotic, and that’s why he needed someone with a grip.
“He doesn’t have it in his personal life—Carrie isn’t Marina Wheeler—and he doesn’t have it in Downing Street.
“When you say something in politics that you know isn’t true, but other people know isn’t true, you know you’re being undone.”