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On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face two high-stakes parliamentary votes after his government was rattled by the surprise resignations of two senior ministers. On Tuesday night, Rishi Sunak stepped down as finance minister and Sajid Javid as health secretary. Both stated that they could no longer tolerate the scandal culture that has followed Johnson for months.
They will now sit on the Conservative back benches in the House of Commons at 1100 GMT for the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions, which promises to be even more tense than usual.
Johnson will then face an hour-long barbecuing from the chairs of the Commons’ most powerful committees, which include some of his most vocal Tory critics.
Mr Sunak and Mr Javid’s resignations came just minutes after the prime minister issued an apology for appointing a senior Conservative who resigned last week after being accused of drunkenly groping two men.
Former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has been promoted to finance secretary.
Following the resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, there had been days of shifting explanations. Downing Street initially denied Johnson was aware of previous accusations against Pincher when he appointed him in February.
But, by Tuesday, that defence had crumbled after a former top civil servant revealed that Johnson, as foreign minister, was informed about yet another incident involving his ally in 2019.
Sunak and Javid’s “icing on the cake” was the Pincher affair, according to Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, a Johnson critic.
“Boris needs to leave. He has the option of dragging this out for a few more hours if he so desires.
“However, I and many others in the party are now determined that he will be gone by the summer recess (which begins on July 22): the sooner the better.”
The resignations dominated the front pages of British newspapers. The Times reported under the headline “Johnson on the Verge” that the “apparently coordinated” move “dealt a possibly deadly blow to the prime minister.”
The prime minister’s former employers, The Daily Telegraph, described him as “hanging by a strand as Sunak and Javid walk out.”
The Guardian and Financial Times both reported that the Prime Minister was “on the verge,” while the conservative Daily Mail tabloid was more vibrant: “Can even Boris the Greased Piglet wriggle out of this?”
Johnson resigned after narrowly surviving a confidence vote among Conservative MPs a month ago.
Other cabinet members, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who are both likely candidates for the presidency, continue to back Johnson, according to aides.
Humility?
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a staunch cabinet ally, dismissed the resignations as “minor local issues.”
“Losing chancellors is just something that happens,” he said on Sky News, referring to previous Tory leaders, though Margaret Thatcher was eventually brought down by a cabinet revolt led by top allies.
Sunak’s departure, coming in the midst of policy disagreements over Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, is bad news for Johnson.
“The public rightly expects government to be handled correctly, competently, and seriously,” said the chancellor of the exchequer.
Sunak wrote to Johnson, “I believe these standards are worth fighting for, which is why I am resigning.”
