With over 30 government resignations and many MPs in his Conservative Party in open rebellion, some senior ministers were in the party. Downing Street A source said to let the prime minister know that he needed to go. Another source said he had at least one to support him if he decided to fight.
Despite the spree to resign, Johnson said he has the mandate from the 2019 national election, which he won with an overwhelming majority.
“I’m not going to step down and the last thing this country needs is, frankly, an election,” he told a parliamentary committee. own legislator.
dramatic resignation His health and finance ministers on Tuesday evening sparked a growing number of other ministerial departures, while several Conservative lawmakers openly said they wanted him to leave, questioning his fitness to govern and his integrity. .
Some conservatives struggled to laugh at parliamentary questions on Wednesday as others mocked him and criticized a committee of senior politicians over his past behaviour, his motivation and some of the scandals that came to define his term Huh.
Johnson came to power nearly three years ago, promising to save Britain from the bitter wrath that followed the EU’s exit and the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Some conservatives enthusiastically supported him, while others were happy to support him despite reservations about the former journalist and mayor of London because he was able to appeal to those parts of the electorate who generally rejected his party. .
It was born in the December 2019 election. But his administration’s belligerent and often chaotic approach and a series of scandals have eroded the goodwill of many of his lawmakers, while opinion polls show he is no longer popular with the public at large.
Despite one-time supporters saying the current crisis could only end with his resignation, Johnson vowed to fight back and his spokesman said he was confident of winning another confidence motion, only narrowly in the past month. had won.
“The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when you’ve been given a huge mandate is to keep going,” Johnson told parliament. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”
Johnson may take some relief from the 1922 committee Which sets the rules for the Conservative leadership’s trust votes. It decided to hold elections for its executive before the rules were changed to allow a second trust vote on its leadership.
He has tried to re-establish his authority by quickly appointing Nadim Zhawi – a rising Conservative star widely praised for the successful rollout of COVID-19 vaccines – as finance minister. But Jahavi was in the group of ministers in Downing Street to ask him to leave.
‘Lightweight Brigade’
Earlier in parliament, senior ministers struggled to contain their laughter as the opposition Labor leader mocked his cabinet for being “in charge of the mild brigade”.
“At some point, we will have to conclude that enough is enough. I believe that point is now,” Sajid Javid said in his resignation speech as health minister, stone-faced with Johnson. Had to do
His leadership has been embroiled in scandals over the past few months. He was fined by police for breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws, while a damning report pointed to bare violations of those rules by Downing Street officials, and a committee is investigating whether they have told Parliament about it. I lied.
There have also been policy U-turns, an unfortunate defense of a lawmaker who broke lobbying rules, and criticism that it has not done enough to tackle inflation, as many Britons struggle to cope with rising fuel and food prices. .
The latest scandal saw Johnson apologizing for the appointment of an MP for a role involved in party welfare and discipline, even as it was reported that the politician was the subject of complaints about sexual misconduct.
With Johnson vowing to stick with him, and with no immediate way to force him out of office, a Conservative lawmaker compared it to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 US election result.
“We could end up in a Trumpian impasse,” the lawmaker said. “This can cause great embarrassment and loss to the party.”
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.