Boris Johnson announces he is stepping down as prime minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced his resignation but will remain in office until a new leader is elected.

Speaking today to media representatives gathered outside the prime minister’s residence on Downing Street, Johnson thanked his supporters and all citizens of the country for their support, and admitted that he was sad to leave the “best job in the world”, but “it just happened.” He also mentioned Ukraine, assuring that his cabinet would continue to support the country even after his resignation. The fight for the post of leader will take place in the summer, the new prime minister will take office in time for the party conference in October.

Calls for Johnson to step down came Thursday from both conservatives and the opposition. And they believe that Dominic Raab, Deputy Prime Minister, should take over the leadership of the country during the period of the election of a new prime minister.

The resignation of the prime minister was preceded by a flurry of resignations of ministers who did not want to work with Johnson. The British prime minister made it clear that he was leaving reluctantly and not because of the call of fellow party members. He called their resignations in protest against the scandals “eccentric” and did not even mention his own mistakes. He expressed regret that he could not convince colleagues to continue to support him:

“I am sorry that my arguments did not bring results, and it hurts me that I will not be able to implement so many ideas and projects.”

As writes air force, the prime minister is clearly in no hurry to leave. He wants to be remembered not for the last days of political chaos that led to his resignation. The crisis in the government has been developing for several months, and this week has reached its climax. More than 50 ministers and senior ministerial officials left their posts, including Johnson’s closest supporters – Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid. Even Home Secretary Priti Patel, who owes her career to Johnson, and Transportation Minister Grant Shapps called on the prime minister to step down.

This morning, new chancellor Nadeem Zahavi, who took office less than two days after Sunak’s departure, called on Johnson to step down:

“It’s unbearable and will only get worse.”

Recall that in early June, Parliament voted on a vote of no confidence in Johnson, who won it by a very small margin. The vote was initiated by 54 MPs from the Conservative Party, who were outraged by a report on parties on Downing Street in 2020-2021, when the country was under a severe coronavirus lockdown. In recent days, dozens of former associates of the prime minister have said that they can no longer trust him.

And, as they say, the “icing on the cake” was the scandal with Chris Pincher, a member of the government accused of sexual harassment of men. A complaint was received from two men who said that Pincher touched them in an indecent way at a party in a private club. Chris Pincher himself is directly responsible for the discipline of the Conservatives in Parliament. Parliamentarians were extremely outraged by the fact that Johnson appointed him to a high position, despite the fact that he had previously been accused of such a thing. An internal investigation found that the allegations were well founded.

Johnson, as always, initially replied that he did not remember anything, but then decided to apologize. But again, only after he was “pinned to the wall”, presenting irrefutable evidence that he was personally informed about the incident. And even if the prime minister forgot about it, his secretary could easily remind him of it by holding up the minutes of that meeting.

Experts and analysts believe that everything will remain the same in British foreign policy after Johnson’s resignation:

“Because the Conservatives will still remain in power, there is a consensus in the British elite regarding the need to resist Russia, and even the largest opposition party, Labor, has a position that is almost the same. However, the role of Johnson’s personality cannot be underestimated. He is an eccentric and extremely ambitious person who saw himself in the role of a great ruler of the level of Churchill.This explains many of his actions – and Brexit (it was he who brought the matter to a real withdrawal of Britain from EU), and a tough stance on the war in Ukraine, where he wanted to take on the role of the leader of the Western world in confronting Russia, and projects to create new associations in Europe as part of Britain, Poland and Ukraine.

At the same time, in many cases, he went against the will of the left-liberal establishment, which now rules in the largest countries of Western Europe and in the United States. Therefore, the Western elites never liked Johnson, perceiving him as the British version of Trump. And now they will probably try to help install a new prime minister loyal to them, and in the future, perhaps even reverse Brexit (of which Johnson was one of the main ideologists), by holding a new referendum on returning to the EU.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, if this plan works, then Britain will act clearly in the wake of the Biden administration. And this will mean, for example, that if Biden, Scholz and Macron come to some kind of common opinion on what to do next with regard to the war in Ukraine, then London will not torpedo this understanding, and the British Prime Minister will not urgently fly to Kyiv to convince Zelensky does not agree with this understanding.”

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