LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s support plummeted on Wednesday, a day after two shattering resignations from his cabinet. The resignations kept coming and some ministers were telling the prime minister he should resign, the BBC reported.
Throughout the day, more than two dozen junior ministers and aides resigned, following the example of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid who resigned on Tuesday.
Mr Johnson got something of a reprieve on Wednesday night when a Conservative Party committee postponed a vote on a rule change that would have allowed them to hold a no-confidence vote soon in parliament and oust Mr Johnson.
But that was just one minute of decent news for the prime minister, who earlier on Wednesday received a standing ovation in Parliament.
Mr Johnson vowed to fight back, trying to shift the focus to new government tax cuts which he said would help millions of struggling Britons. But in backrooms across Westminster, lawmakers met to discuss ways to force Mr Johnson out, possibly within days.
In parliament, Labor leader Keir Starmer delivered a damning indictment of Mr Johnson’s role in the latest scandal, which involved allegations of sexual misconduct and binge drinking by a Tory lawmaker.
Mr Johnson had promoted the lawmaker, Chris Pincher, after earlier allegations of misconduct. Ministers were sent to offer denials about what the prime minister knew about the allegations, but those claims were quickly dismissed, a grimly familiar experience some reported as they resigned.
“Anyone who resigns now, after standing up for all this, has no shred of integrity,” Mr Starmer said, pointing the finger at Mr Johnson. “Isn’t this the first recorded case of a sinking ship fleeing the rats?”
A visibly distressed Mr Johnson again apologized for backing Mr Pincher but insisted he as prime minister was speaking on behalf of the British people. “The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he has been given a colossal mandate, is to carry on,” he said.
The situation appeared to be worsening for Mr Johnson on Wednesday afternoon, as the BBC reported that Michael Gove, an influential cabinet member, had told the prime minister it was time to go. Mr Gove, the housing secretary, has long been seen as a key power broker in the Conservative Party and was noticeably absent from the front benches of Parliament during tense exchanges earlier in the day.
The broadcaster also reported that members of the Cabinet were urging Mr Johnson to resign, including Nadhim Zahawi, who only yesterday became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary.
Clashes in Parliament earlier in the day marked the precipitous fall in Mr Johnson’s fortunes. Several Conservatives have called on him to step down, including Gary Sambrook, MP for Birmingham, who is an official on an influential committee of Conservative backbenchers overseeing a future no-confidence vote.
Mr Sunak and Mr Javid resigned after Mr Johnson apologized for the latest scandal to hit his government. Several other officials have since followed suit, including Will Quince, the minister for children and families, who earlier this week strongly defended Mr Johnson’s role in the scandal.
The walkouts opened a movement against Mr Johnson within his own party that has been building against him for months, fueled by a stream of embarrassing reports of social gatherings in Downing Street breaching the government’s own rules to contain the coronavirus.
Mr Johnson had moved quickly to announce replacements for Mr Sunak and Mr Javid, signaling he planned to try to stabilize the government and fight for his job. And he did his best to project a defiant image: According to the Times of London, when an ally asked him Tuesday night if he planned to resign, he responded with the epithet “F- that.”
But by all accounts the prime minister was in greater political peril than at any time in his tumultuous three-year tenure in Downing Street.
A freelance journalist-turned-politician, Mr Johnson has survived multiple investigations, a criminal fine from the police and a vote of no confidence among MPs in his Conservative Party just last month – all related to parties held in Downing Street during the lockdown due to coronavirus.
But it was the most recent outcry over Mr Johnson’s promotion of Mr Pincher that appeared to set Mr Sunak and Mr Javid on edge and set the stage for the latest round of accusations.
Last week, Mr Pincher resigned as deputy party leader after admitting he was drunk at a private members’ club in London where he allegedly groped two men. On Tuesday, Downing Street admitted that Mr Johnson had been told of previous allegations against Mr Pincher in 2019 — something Mr Johnson’s office initially denied.
Mr Starmer, the Labor leader, could face a reckoning of his own on Wednesday: Police in Durham, England, are due to release the findings of an investigation into whether he broke the law by taking part in a beer and India dinner eating with other party officials during a pandemic lockdown. Mr Starmer has promised to resign if police fine him.
