BORIS Johnson has finally given into extreme internal pressure and has reportedly agreed to quit as Prime Minister after a flurry a ministerial resignations.
Yesterday, a defiant Prime Minister refused to resign, insisting he would "hang in there".
Mr Johnson sacked his Cabinet rival Michael Gove last night in a dramatic attempt to show he still held authority.
That move came after a host of senior Cabinet ministers, including Mr Gove alongside Priti Patel and Brandon Lewis pleaded with the Prime Minister to resign amid growing pressure over the Chris Pincher scandal.
This moning his education secretary Michelle Donelan resigned just two days after taking on the role while Chancellor Nadhim Zahari wrote to the Prime Minister this mornign urging him to "go now".
Multiple sources are reporting that Mr Johnson has finally agreed to resign.
He will remain as Prime Minister until a successor is in place, expected to be by the time of the Conservative Party conference in October.
A No 10 source said Mr Johnson spoke to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, to inform him of his decision.
“The Prime Minister has spoken to Graham Brady and agreed to stand down in time for a new leader to be in place by the conference in October,” a No 10 source said.
Mr Johnson will make a statement later today confirming the decision.
The mutiny was kickstarted by Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid on Tuesday, quitting within minutes of Mr Johnson apologising for promoting Mr Pincher to deputy chief whip despite being aware of allegations against him as far back as 2019.
On Wednesday, Mr Johnson faced an excruciating Prime Minister's Questions, facing calls from his party colleagues to finally succumb to pressure and quit. The Prime Minister insisted he would continue on despite haemorrhaging support from within his own party and Government.
At a difficult two-hour appearance in from of the Commons Liaison Committee yesterday, the Prime Minister insisted he was “not going to step down”.
But on Wednesday afternoon, a delegation of Cabinet ministers arrived at Downing Street to plead with Mr Johnson to quit after dozens of ministers tendered their resignation.
Mr Johnson has been facing calls to quit for months following the partygate scandal that saw him issues with a police fine for his role in illegal lockdown parties at Downing Street.
The PM resisted calls and saw off an attempt to oust him by the Tory backbench group, the 1922 Committee.
He also saw the party lose two by-elections on the same night in response to Mr Johnson’s flailing popularity.
But his Conservative MPs have reacted with anger to his handling of the Pincher fiasco.
Mr Pincher quit as deputy chief whip last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members’ club, but Mr Johnson was told about allegations against him as far back as 2019.
The Prime Minister acknowledged he should have sacked Mr Pincher when he was told about the claims against him when he was a Foreign Office minister in 2019, but instead Mr Johnson went on to appoint him to other government roles.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “It is good news for the country that Boris Johnson has resigned as Prime Minister.
“But it should have happened long ago.
“He was always unfit for office. He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale.
“And all those who have been complicit should be utterly ashamed.
“The Tory party have inflicted chaos upon the country during the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. And they cannot now pretend they are the ones to sort it out.
“They have been in power for 12 years. The damage they have done is profound.
“Twelve years of economic stagnation. Twelve years of declining public services. Twelve years of empty promises.
“Enough is enough. We don’t need to change the Tory at the top – we need a proper change of government.
“We need a fresh start for Britain.”
Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be “widespread relief” that Boris Johnson is quitting as Prime Minister.
The First Minister also questioned whether it was “sustainable” for him to remain in the role until the autumn.
She tweeted: “There will be a widespread sense of relief that the chaos of the last few days (indeed months) will come to an end, though notion of Boris Johnson staying on as PM until autumn seems far from ideal, and surely not sustainable?
“Boris Johnson was always manifestly unfit to be PM and the Tories should never have elected him leader or sustained him in office for as long as they have.
“But the problems run much deeper than one individual.
“The Westminster system is broken.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel