British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned, after a shocking few days of UK politics that saw a mass exodus of more than 50 members of Parliament who declared they had lost faith in the conservative leadership.
Defiant until the end, Johnson agreed to step down as head of the Conservative Party but intends to remain as prime minister in a caretaker role until a new leader is selected in October. In the UK, the prime minister is chosen by members of Parliament electing the leader of their party.
In his address to the nation, Johnson told the public that in politics “no one is remotely indispensable.”
“The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019,” Johnson said, standing outside the steps of 10 Downing Street.
Johnson has always been a controversial figure. After eight years as mayor of London, he led the campaign for Brexit.
He succeeded Theresa May in becoming prime minister in July 2019 after winning the party contest and had his leadership bolstered by a historic landslide general election victory just five months after that.
Johnson’s tenure as prime minister has been marked by a dramatic rise and subsequent fall in popularity with controversy after controversy, including hosting parties at his office that breached lockdown rules during the peak of the pandemic and for which he received a police fine.
The 58-year-old conceded that he had been unsuccessful in convincing his colleagues to back his leadership and blamed the power of “Westminster herd instinct” as the driving force behind his downfall.
Johnson was confronted by senior members of Parliament last night who called for him to step down after more than 50 resignations from within the party in recent days, including the chancellor of the exchequer (the third-highest political role in the country), and the secretary of state for health and social care.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/adeonibada/prime-minister-boris-johnson-resign-conservative-leader
