UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson to resign today- BBC
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce his resignation today, Thursday July 7, 2022 amid a party revolt and is due to give a statement. The BBC, the state broadcaster, said Johnson had agreed to resign but hoped to stay in office until the autumn.
More than 50 members of the British government have resigned in 48 hours, saying they no longer have faith in his leadership after a series of scandals, the latest involving an ally accused of improper sexual conduct.
Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, wrote: “Boris Johnson will resign as Conservative leader today – 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.”
A spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said: “The Prime Minister will make a statement to the country today.”
Boris Johnson narrowly survived a vote of no confidence in June 2022, which left him weakened politically. A delegation of Cabinet ministers gathered at Downing Street to pressure Johnson to quit.
The ministers quit following the latest scandal around Johnson’s premiership allegations that Chris Pincher, his deputy chief whip, had drunkenly groped two men in a private members’ club.
In the aftermath of Pincher’s resignation, Johnson claimed not to have known about similar allegations when he gave him the job. That soon fell apart in another public example of him not telling the truth.
Those who quit repeatedly cited a loss of trust in the government, and in Johnson personally, as their reason for going.
In April, Johnson became the first sitting prime minister to be found to have broken the law after he received a fine from the Metropolitan Police for attending an illegal gathering in Downing Street during a coronavirus lockdown, despite telling Parliament that he and others had followed the rules.
The gathering, to mark his birthday, was one of a number of lockdown-breaking events in the “Partygate” scandal examined by senior civil servant Sue Gray. In a report, Gray criticised “failures of leadership and judgement in No 10 and the Cabinet Office” amid details of vomiting, fighting, and a child’s swing being broken in parties at the heart of government.
