Yves Herman | Reuters LONDON — More than 50 members of parliament have resigned from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government since Tuesday, as an unprecedented revolt against the leader from within his own party continues. After a flurry of resignations on Wednesday, more ministers quit early Thursday morning, including Northern Ireland Finance Minister Brandon Lewis, Finance Minister Helen Whately and Security Secretary Damian Hinds. A Sky News count puts the total number of departures at 53 at 8.15am. London time. The 50th resignation came from George Freeman, a junior minister for science, research and innovation, at around 7.20am. London time. Pensions Minister Guy Opperman resigned shortly afterwards. In a scathing resignation letter to the prime minister, Freeman said “the culmination of a lack of transparency and honesty with Parliament (and a willingness to ask your ministers to mislead Parliament), the removal of key pillars of the ministerial code, the handling Your appointment of a Deputy Chief Whip who it turns out you knew had a history of sexual abuse allegations is excessive.” “This seriously damages the public’s trust and respect for government, democracy and the law, and the long tradition of this great Party as a party of standards, character, conduct, integrity and duty to office and country before the partisan interest,” he added. Johnson met with the rest of his cabinet on Wednesday night, many of whom reportedly urged him to resign. CNBC has contacted Downing Street for comment. The prime minister has so far refused calls to resign, pledging to “fight on”. Johnson has been embroiled in a series of scandals and allegations of misleading the public, but the final straw for many MPs involved Tory MP Chris Pincher. The former deputy chief whip was suspended last week amid allegations he drunkenly snarled two men at a private members’ club. Johnson apologized on Tuesday for appointing Pincher’s deputy leader – a top party role – despite being aware of an investigation into his conduct in 2019. Revelations that Johnson was aware of allegations of misconduct against Pincher before his appointment and repeated line changes emanating from Number 10 prompted the resignations on Tuesday night of two top officials, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Health Secretary Sajid Javid. In a resignation speech to parliament on Wednesday, Javid, also a former chancellor, said “the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months”. Johnson narrowly survived a vote of confidence by Tory MPs last month, but many who previously supported his leadership have now abandoned their support. Matt Beech, director of the Center for British Politics at the University of Hull, told CNBC on Thursday that the challenge facing Johnson this time is different because of the “huge proportion of government pay votes” that have resigned, calling the situation as “quite seismic”. This is a developing story and will be updated soon.
