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Boris Johnson has agreed to step down
Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson can leave his office in the near time: he agreed to resign but only in autumn when the Tories elect a new leader.
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However, there are arguments and demands in the party and the Cabinet for the Prime Minister to be replaced immediately. Who can be an interim caretaker and how fast is Johnson’s Cabinet breaking apart?
Almost 30 ministers resigned
In the Conservative party, heated debate is ongoing as to whether it is sustainable for Boris Johnson to remain as PM until the autumn, The Guardian writes.
The full list of ministers who resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet after the latest scandal around Chris Pincher’s resignation already covered by The Page (as of morning, July 7, 28 persons have left) is as follows:
- Rishi Sunak, Chancellor
- Sajid Javid, Health Secretary
- Simon Hart, Wales Secretary
- Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary
- Michelle Donelan, Education Secretary
- Alex Chalk, Solicitor General
- Will Quince, Children and Families Minister
- Robin Walker, Education Minister
- John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury
- Victoria Atkins, Prisons Minister
- Jo Churchill, Minister for Agri-Innovation and Climate Adaptation
- Stuart Andrew, Housing Minister
- Kemi Badenoch, Equalities Minister
- Julia Lopez, Minister for Media
- Lee Rowley, Industry Minister
- Neil O'Brien, Leveling up Minister
- Alex Burghart, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills
- Mims Davies, Employment Minister
- Rachel McLean, Safeguarding Minister
- Mike Freer, Exports Minister
- Edward Argar, Health Minister
- Helen Whately, Exchequer Secretary
- Damian Hinds, Security Minister
- George Freeman, Science Minister
- Guy Opperman, Pensions Minister
- Chris Philp, Technology Minister
- James Cartlidge, Minister for Justice
- Michael Gove, Leveling Up Secretary.
A total of about 40 officials resigned from the Boris Johnson Cabinet, including junior employees.
The UK Minister for Defense Ben Wallace advised the Party to use the procedure to change leaders and said that it’s too risky to leave this many offices in the Cabinet empty until autumn.
"A number of us have an obligation to keep this country safe, no matter who is PM. The Party has a mechanism to change leaders and that is the mechanism which I advise colleagues to use. In the meantime, the public would not forgive us if we left these Offices of State empty," Wallace wrote on Twitter.
George Freeman, who left the office of the Minister for Science, thinks that Boris Johnson has to resign now.
"We need Ministers back at their desks," he stressed and added that Johnson has to allow Queen Elizabeth II, who talked to the PM Wednesday evening, to appoint a Caretaker.
"Reckless Johnson should be forced out now"
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Two more ex-ministers have anonymously told The Guardian it was not possible for Johnson to stay till the autumn, and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has to be the Caretaker.
"He needs to hand in the seals of office today and go. So we can have a caretaker PM," says one of the speakers.
Another senior Tory source said Johnson‘s behavior in the last 48 hours has been "reckless and erratic":
"He cannot be trusted to lead the country until the autumn. God knows what he will do."
One more former government official said it was "dangerous" for Johnson to stay in office. and another one called him "a disgrace".
Johnson was always unfit to be PM, and now the Westminster system is broken, wrote Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland.
"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," she pointed out.
Can Johnson stay for a while?
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said that he was not too bothered about the prospect of Boris Johnson staying on as PM until the autumn.
He said appointing someone else as an interim prime minister would be difficult because it looked as if half the cabinet would be running in the leadership contest.
Although Dominic Raab is deputy PM, he also has a full-time job as justice secretary, so he will hardly be able to hold one more office as an interim PM, Davis explained.
James Cartlidge, who resigned as Courts Minister, also said he thought it would be reasonable for Johnson to hang on as caretake PM until an official replacement is chosen.
The same opinion was expressed by Chris Philp, a former Technology Minister. Asked if he thinks it will be possible for him to return to his job after the PM agreed to resign, Philp said that was not up to him.
Context.
- Earlier we wrote that Boris Johnson has proposed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to set up a new international alliance that will oppose Russia and become an alternative to the EU.
- The Page also wrote that Boris Johnson vowed to remain a steadfast friend of Ukraine in a written foreword to the Queen’s Speech on May 10.