Boris Johnson on Thursday announced his resignation as the British Prime Minister.

Johnson said he fought hard to continue because it was his duty to continue to work on the promises he made in 2019. He said he has helped reclaim the power of the country to make its own laws and it is painful to not be able to see so many ideas through. "In politics, no one is indispensable," he said.

Johnson further said he has appointed a new cabinet and will serve as Prime Minister until a successor is chosen. "To the new leader, I assure you of my support," Johnson said, adding that he was sad to be giving up the "best job in the world".

The timetable for electing the next Prime Minister is to be laid out. Johnson intends to continue till a new PM is appointed, which could take as long as the English autumn. Many within the party wanted him to leave immediately.

Edward Luce of Financial Times said that it wasn't revelations of lack of personal integrity or immoral conduct or incompetence, because those have been there all along and conservative cabinet ministers and backbenchers have been supporting him through actually much worse scandals than the ones we have had in recent weeks. "What changed was public opinion and the Conservative Party is very ruthless. When public opinion turns against its leader, the Conservative Party follows public opinion," Luce said.

Luce thinks the British public just had enough. "A tipping point was reached of the drip, some of them very minor seeming scandals, like party gate, breaking his own social distancing rules, appointing a serial drunken groper to it to be as Deputy Chief and denying that he knew about the allegations about his groping. I mean, there have been a number of minor scandals, but they sort of built up and broken the camel's back," he added.

Henry Ridgwell of Voice of America said Johnson was clinging on to the very last minute when it became clear that there was no practical way for him to function as the PM, as the leader of the Conservative Party. "He had faced so many resignations from ministers, many of the members of the Cabinet this morning that even passing minor bills having committees scrutinised legislation was becoming impossible. It was very clear that his support had completely dried up," he said.

In terms of facing a no confidence vote that something that the Labour Party had threatened to put through if Boris Johnson had not resigned, but he was also facing hostile actions from his own MPs, Ridgwell said. "They plan to change the rules, the internal rules effectively of the Conservative Party next week to allow them to challenge his leadership once again and choose a new leader. So really, the writing was on the wall from yesterday afternoon when those senior members of the Cabinet resigned," he said.

Ridgwell said it is worth saying that the Labour Party is still threatening a no confidence vote in the Prime Minister because he intends to stay on until the autumn, it seems he said there in that speech that the timetable will be laid out next week.

"But having appointed a new cabinet and several new ministers to fill those dozens of holes in government, it's clear that he intends to govern until a new leader is found, possibly in several months’ time. There is frustration not only from opposition parties over that time timetable, who wants him gone straight away, but also members of the Tory party who sees support for them and their party ebbing away all the time, that Boris Johnson is at the totem, at the head of this party," he added.

The Pincher scandal

Johnson was abandoned by ministers and his Conservative Party's lawmakers who said he was no longer fit to govern.

Johnson was facing the heat for his shifting claims on Chris Pincher, a lawmaker who stepped down as a government whip on June 30 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Pincher resigned saying he had embarrassed himself and other people in a state of drunkenness. Following the resignation, the government announced that no further action would be taken against Pincher and that he would remain an MP as he had recognised his misconduct. This enraged the Conservative MPs, BBC reported.

This is not the first time allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against Pincher. He was, however, elevated to the position of power as the party's deputy chief whip by Johnson. On Tuesday, Johnson admitted he was informed about the complaint in 2019 and apologised for appointing Pincher to the government role.

Leaders step down, call for Johnson's resignation

The Iraqi-origin Nadhim Zahawi, who replaced Rishi Sunak as Chancellor of the Exchequer after the latter quit on Tuesday, and who is seen as a frontrunner to replace Johnson, had written a damning letter which openly questioned Johnson's authority and demanded his resignation.

"Prime Minister, you know in your heart what the right thing to do is, and go now," he signs off. He further said that "not sustainable and will only get worse". He further appealed to PM Johnson to leave with dignity.

Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned on Tuesday expressing a lack of confidence in Johnson’s leadership.

The letters were also strongly worded. Sunak said the “public rightly expects the government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, standards that he believes are worth fighting for.

Javid said, “I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their government.”

Earlier, Education Secretary Michelle Donelan had quit saying that Mr Johnson had "put us in an impossible situation", BBC reported.

On Thursday, eight ministers, including two secretaries of state, resigned within two hours.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis became the first cabinet member of the day on Thursday, followed by seven other ministers. This wave of resignations from the government and party exceeded 50 since Tuesday. The 50th resignation came from George Freeman, a junior minister for science, research and innovation at around 7.20 am (British Standard Time — 11.50 am IST) on Thursday morning.

Here's a quick glance at Johnson's career timeline.

First Published:Jul 7, 2022 5:05 PM IST