Bowing to the inevitable as more than 50 government ministers and aides resigned and lawmakers told him to go, an isolated and impotent Johnson said it was clear his party wanted to put someone else in charge, but his forced departure was “eccentric” and the result of “herd instinct” in parliament.
“Today I have appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is appointed,” Johnson said outside his Downing Street office, where his speech was watched by close allies and his wife Carrie.
“I know there will be a lot of people who will be relieved and maybe a lot of people who will be disappointed too. And I want you to know how sad I am to give up the best job in the world. But those are the breaks.” he added, without apologizing for the events that forced his announcement.
His tenure was ended by scandals, including violations of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown rules, a luxurious renovation of his official residence and the appointment of a minister charged with sexual misconduct.
There were cheers and applause as he began his speech, with cheers from some outside the gates of Downing Street.
After days of fighting for his job, Johnson had been abandoned by nearly a handful of his closest allies after the latest in a series of scandals undermined their willingness to support him.
“It was a short and bizarre resignation speech where the word resign was not mentioned once. There was no apology, no remorse,” said conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen. “There was no apology for the crisis that his actions have endured for our government and our democracy.”
Conservatives will now have to elect a new leader, a process that could take weeks or months, details of which will be announced next week.
POTENTIAL SUCCESSORIES
A quick YouGov poll found that Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was the favorite among Conservative Party members to replace Johnson, followed by junior Commerce Secretary Penny Mordaunt and former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak.
While Johnson said he would stay, opponents and many in his own party said he should leave immediately and hand it over to his deputy, Dominic Raab. Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major said it was “unwise and perhaps untenable” for him to remain in office while he was still able to exercise his powers.
Johnson’s office said he made it clear at a meeting of his new cabinet on Thursday that the government would not try to implement new policies or make major changes in direction, and that important fiscal decisions should be left to the next leader.
Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labor party, said he would hold a confidence vote in parliament if the Conservatives did not remove Johnson immediately.
CRISIS OF COST OF LIFE
Johnson leaves an economy in crisis. Britons are facing the greatest pressure on their finances in decades in the wake of the pandemic, with inflation rising. The economy is expected to be the weakest of the major countries in 2023, excluding Russia.
His departure also follows years of internal division, fueled by the tight vote in 2016 to leave the European Union, and threats to the UK’s own constitution with demands for another Scottish independence referendum, the second in a decade.
Support for Johnson had evaporated during one of the most turbulent 24 hours in recent British political history, epitomized by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed to his post only on Tuesday and called for his boss to resign.
Zahawi and other ministers went to Downing Street on Wednesday evening, along with a senior legislator who was not in government, to tell Johnson the game was over.
Initially, Johnson refused to go and seemed set to fire Michael Gove – a member of his top ministerial team who was one of the first to tell him he should resign – in an effort to reassert his authority.
But by Thursday morning, as a slew of layoffs poured in — including that of Michelle Donelan, whom he had only appointed as secretary of education Tuesday night — it became clear that his position was untenable.
“You have to do the right thing and go now,” Zahawi tweeted.
Some of those who remained, including Wallace, had said they were only doing this because they had a duty to keep the country safe.
When it became clear that he was stepping down, Johnson began appointing ministers to vacant posts.
“It is now our duty to ensure that the people of this country have a functioning government,” Michael Ellis, a minister in the Cabinet Office department that oversees the government, told parliament.
FROM POPULAR TO ABANDONED
The ebullient Johnson came to power nearly three years ago, pledging to make Brexit happen and save it from the bitter bickering that followed the 2016 referendum. He brushed aside concerns from some that his narcissism, inattention to detail and a reputation for cheating meant that he was unfit.
Some Conservatives enthusiastically supported the former journalist and mayor of London, while others, despite reservations, supported him because he could appeal to parts of the electorate that their party used to reject.
That was evident in the December 2019 elections. But his government’s combative and often chaotic approach to governing and the scandals have exhausted the goodwill of many of his lawmakers, while opinion polls show he is no longer popular with the general public.
The most recent crisis erupted after lawmaker Chris Pincher, who held a government position in pastoral care, dropped charges of groping men in a private club.
Johnson had to apologize after it was revealed that he had been informed that Pincher had been the subject of previous sexual misconduct complaints before hiring him. The Prime Minister said he had forgotten.
This followed months of missteps, including a damning report of drunken parties at his Downing Street home and office, which broke the Covid-19 lockdown rules and earned him a fine from the police for a rally ahead of his 56th birthday.
There have also been policy changes, an ill-fated defense of a lawmaker that has broken lobbying rules, and criticism that it hasn’t done enough to address the cost of living crisis.
In his resignation speech, Johnson highlighted his successes – from completing Brexit to overseeing the fastest rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in Europe. But he said his attempts to convince colleagues that changing leadership while Ukraine was at war and the government was carrying out its agenda had failed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t succeed in those arguments. And of course it’s painful not being able to see through so many ideas and projects on my own,” he said.
“But as we’ve seen in Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful — when the herd moves, it moves and, my friends, in politics no one is remotely indispensable.”