Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday amid a mass revolt by top members of his government, marking the end of three tumultuous years in office in which he brazenly bent and at times broke the rules of British politics. Months of defiance ended with almost a shrug as Johnson stood outside No. 10 Downing St and admitted his party wanted him out. “It’s the breaks,” he said. The brash, 58-year-old politician who took Britain out of the European Union and guided it through COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine has been marred by one too many scandals — one involving the appointment of a politician accused of sexual abuse. The messiest prime minister didn’t get away clean. Johnson immediately resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, but said he would remain prime minister until the party chooses his successor. The timetable for this process will be announced next week, he said. But many in the party want him out before that, and his government has been decimated by dozens of resignations. Among the possible candidates to succeed him: former health secretary Sajid Javid, former head of the Treasury Rishi Sunak, foreign secretary Liz Truss and defense secretary Ben Wallace. After the latest scandal broke, Johnson remained in office for days, defiantly telling lawmakers on Wednesday that he had a “colossal mandate” from voters and intended to continue governing. But he was forced to admit defeat on Thursday morning after one of his closest allies, newly appointed Finance Ministry head Nadhim Zahawi, publicly told him to step down for the good of the country. “Over the last few days, I have tried to convince my colleagues that it would be crazy to change governments when we have so much to offer and when we have such a huge mandate,” Johnson said. “I am sorry that I have not been successful in these arguments, and of course it is painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.” About 50 cabinet secretaries, ministers and lower-level officials had resigned from the government in recent days, often blaming the prime minister for his lack of integrity. The mass resignations had halted the work of some parliamentary committees because no ministers were available to speak on behalf of the government. “It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said. Zahawi, who was promoted earlier this week as Johnson sought to shore up his cabinet, said he and a group of colleagues had privately raised their concerns with the prime minister on Wednesday and decided to go public after Johnson ignored the advice. to resign. “The country deserves a government that is not only stable, but that acts with integrity,” Zahawi said in a letter posted on Twitter. It was a humiliating defeat for Johnson, who not only withdrew Brexit but was also credited with launching one of the world’s most successful mass vaccination campaigns to combat COVID-19. But the perpetually scruffy, shaggy-haired leader, known for responding to his critics with bluntness and indignation, also faced allegations that he acted as if the rules didn’t apply to him. He managed to stay in power despite accusations that he was too close to party donors, that he shielded his supporters from allegations of intimidation and corruption, and that he misled Parliament about ruling parties breaking COVID-19 quarantine rules. He was fined by party police and survived last month’s no-confidence vote in parliament, in which 41% of Conservative MPs sought to oust him. Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, succeeding Theresa May, who resigned after Parliament rejected the Brexit deal she negotiated with the EU. Johnson promoted his own Brexit deal in an often messy and turbulent debate. With his mop of unruly blond hair, he often looked like a schoolboy who had just rolled out of bed and was running to class in his pajamas under his clothes. In his rise to power he displayed many of the same habits and abilities that would take him far but also mark his downfall: He was a flashy mayor of London who loved attention. a journalist sacked for fabricating a quote and filing exaggerated stories about EU excesses; and a politician with an Eton and Oxford flair for colorful language and the drive and intensity of debate. He became known for his slight regard for the truth and his crooked and offensive marks. He called Papua New Guineans cannibals and likened Muslim women who wear face veils to “letterboxes”. Recent revelations that Johnson knew about sexual harassment allegations against a Tory MP before promoting him to a senior government post have proved one scandal too many. The crisis began when Chris Pincher resigned as deputy captain amid allegations he groped two men at a private club. This sparked a series of reports about previous allegations against Pincher. Johnson offered varying explanations of what he knew and when he knew it. This only reinforced the feeling that he could not trust the prime minister. Javid and Sunak resigned within minutes of each other on Tuesday night, triggering a wave of departures among their cabinet colleagues and junior officials and plunging the government into crisis. Javid said Johnson’s actions threatened to undermine the integrity of the Conservative Party and the British government. “At some point we have to come to the conclusion that enough is enough,” he told the House of Commons on Wednesday. “I think that point is now.” After Johnson’s repeated moral lapses and brushes with political disaster, many Britons reacted to his resignation with surprise, given that he had been through so many scandals in the past. “I felt like he could just keep going and ignore it, so I was a bit surprised this morning when I saw it on my phone,” said Himmat Dalyway, an investment trader in his 20s, outside a London tube station. “Are you still 100% sure it’s going to go?” Now with their leadership election, the Conservatives will have to decide whether they can enjoy Johnson as caretaker leader, a job that usually involves saying little and doing nothing. Johnson is not the type to fade into the background. “I suspect some of them will want him gone immediately. And to be honest, I think a lot of the public will want to see him go immediately,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. . “You know, they don’t want to see him hanging around like a bad smell in Downing Street.”
