(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 29, 2022 Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to attend a Service of Thanksgiving for Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in central London. AFP
British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson will on Thursday resign as leader of the Conservative Party, but he will continue as Prime Minister until the autumn.
A Conservative leadership race will take place this summer and a new Prime Minister will be in place in time for the Tory party conference in October.
It is the third day of a steady stream of resignations from Boris Johnson’s government, with over 50 members gone.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister was on the brink after two of his senior ministers quit in protest at his scandal-hit leadership, piling on the pressure as he faced a grilling from angry MPs.
The 58-year-old leader’s grip on power became more precarious within 10 short minutes on Tuesday night when Rishi Sunak resigned as finance minister and Sajid Javid quit as health secretary.
Both said they could no longer tolerate the culture of scandal that has stalked Johnson for months, including lockdown lawbreaking in Downing Street that enraged the public who followed the rules.
Sunak and Javid will now sit on the Conservative backbenches at the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions at 1100 GMT, which promises to be even more combustible than usual.
Johnson then faces an hours-long grilling from the chairs of the House of Commons’ most powerful committees, who include some of his most virulent critics in the Tory ranks.
The exits of Sunak and Javid came just minutes after Johnson apologised for appointing a senior Conservative, who quit his post last week after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men.
Former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi was handed the finance brief. “You don’t go into this job to have an easy life,” Zahawi told Sky News on Wednesday.
“Sometimes it’s easy to walk away but actually, it’s much tougher to deliver for the country.”
