British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid during a visit to the New Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, England, in April. Credit… Pool photo by Frank Augstein
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting for his political survival on Tuesday when two senior ministers in his Conservative government unexpectedly resigned from their cabinet posts in what appeared to be a coordinated move against their leader.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, both stepped down over the latest scandal to raise questions about Mr Johnson’s judgment and integrity. They announced their decisions shortly after Mr Johnson apologized for appointing minister Chris Pincher, who resigned last week amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
The resignations put Mr Johnson in his most perilous position since his three-year tenure as prime minister, after a series of crises forced him to survive a no-confidence vote last month.
Mr Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote among his own lawmakers last month and, unless party rules are changed, he cannot face another contest for a year. This means cabinet resignations may be the only effective method of pressuring Mr Johnson to resign.
“The public rightly expects government to be run properly, competently and seriously,” Mr Sunak said in a statement. “I recognize that this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”
Mr Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip last week after admitting he had been drunk at a private members’ club in London where he allegedly touched two men inappropriately. He has been suspended from the Conservative Party while the allegations are investigated, but has not resigned as an MP.
On Tuesday, Downing Street acknowledged that Mr Johnson had been made aware of previous allegations against Mr Pincher in 2019 – something Mr Johnson’s office initially denied.
The furor over the circumstances of Mr Pincher’s appointment – and Downing Street’s account of it – is just the latest in a series of scandals surrounding Mr Johnson. Earlier this year he was fined by police for breaching his own isolation rules at Downing Street, in which members of his staff were found to have organized a number of alcohol-fuelled parties.
In his resignation statement, Mr Javid said he “can no longer, in good conscience, continue to serve in this government”. Society, he added, expects “the government to be led properly, competently and seriously.”
The reaction of fellow conservative lawmakers in the moments after the resignations signaled a serious threat to Mr. Johnson’s leadership.
“I voted against Boris Johnson in the recent confidence vote and earlier today reiterated my concerns,” Laurence Robertson, a veteran Conservative MP, wrote in a post on Twitter. “The resignations of cabinet ministers show that others agree that the problems of recent months have become a distraction from the challenges facing the country. The Prime Minister must now resign.
Mark Harper, a Conservative MP who had already called on Mr Johnson to stand aside, praised the two cabinet ministers for their leadership. These were “honorable decisions made by honorable people,” Mr. Harper, a former chief whip, said in a post on Twitter.
“The Conservative Party still has so much to offer our country. It’s time for a new beginning,” he added.
The resignation of two such senior ministers is unprecedented in recent years and has echoes of the dramas that led to Margaret Thatcher’s ouster as prime minister in 1990.
Anger among some of his own MPs at Mr Johnson’s behavior was evident earlier in parliament when a minister, Michael Ellis, explained that – contrary to Downing Street’s earlier explanation – the prime minister had been briefed in 2019 d. about the charges against Mr. Pincher, but I had forgotten.
One Conservative MP, William Ragg, said the official account of what happened “seems to change by the hour” and that the government appeared to have “lost its sense of direction”. Opposition MPs laughed when Mr Ellis insisted the Prime Minister had acted “honestly all along”.
Speaking later to the BBC, Mr Johnson admitted it was a “mistake” to make Mr Pincher deputy chief, given complaints about his behaviour. “In hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do and I apologize to everyone who was badly affected by it,” he added
— Stephen Castle and Megan Spezia
Add Comment