Wirral's independent local news website
Boris Johnson has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party but will remain as Prime Minister until the autumn.
At 12:30 today, he officially announced his resignation at a press conference outside number 10 Downing Street.
A Conservative leadership race will take place over the summer and a new Prime Minister will be in place in time for the Tory party conference in October. This means the UK is now heading for the fourth Prime Minister in just six years.
One of the first Conservative MPs to comment was Tobias Ellwood who is MP for Bournemouth East. He told the BBC’s Today Programme that he’s “glad he recognised the damage that was being done not just to the party brand but also our international stock.”
His leadership, long seen by many as dramatically teetering on the cusp of an ungracious fall from favour, came about over the scandal involving former Conservative Party Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is alleged to have been fully aware of Pincher’s sexual misconduct when he appointed Pincher as Deputy Chief Whip, despite his initial indications that he did not.
When Johnson came into office on 24 July 2019, he promised to “restore trust” in democracy – a pledge many of his critics, both within and beyond the confines of the Conservative benches will look back on with a large dollop of incredulity.
Whilst the Pincher scandal was the final catalyst for Johnson’s resignation, he has been in a continually precarious position for quite some time, staggering bullishly from one ignominious incident to another.
Margaret Greenwood, MP for Wirral West said, “Boris Johnson has said that he will continue to serve as Prime Minster until a new leader of the Conservative Party is in place.
“That is not good enough – he should resign now.
“It is clear that he is unfit to lead the country and it is extraordinary that it has taken Conservative MPs so long to recognise this.
“He has misled Parliament, presided over a culture of rule-breaking in Number 10 and is the first serving Prime Minister to have been found to have broken the law.
“His position is completely untenable. He should step down with immediate effect.”
Dame Angela Eagle, MP for Wallasey, said, “Boris Johnson has been a disgrace to the office of Prime Minister from start to finish of his calamitous time in power.
“Nothing epitomises his time as Prime Minister more perfectly than the manner in which & the reasons why it has come to an end.
“He has dragged our country through the mud, as his lazy sense of entitlement has allowed cronyism, scandal and incompetence to run rife.
“His resignation is long overdue, and the Tory MPs who have propped up his leadership for the last three years should be ashamed of what they have enabled.
“Under Boris Johnson’s leadership, there has been a total degradation of the standards of public life.
“We have had a Prime Minister who campaigns rather than governs.
“On his watch we have seen the growth of record-breaking backlogs that have left people unable to book a doctor’s appointment, renew their passports or even get a driver’s license.
“He has presided over the collapse of our judicial system, as arrest and conviction rates have plummeted, and has allowed child poverty levels to soar as a record number of people go hungry each night, all during the worst cost of living crisis on record.
“Set on devising ‘wedge issues’ for his self-serving culture wars, he has deliberately sought to divide our country at the expense of minority groups for own political gain.
“Whilst the fiasco of the last week has been entirely predictable, it is shameful that our country has been deprived of honest leadership for so long due to a single man’s quest for power regardless of the cost.”
Mick Whitley, MP for Birkenhead, said, “For months now I have been calling for Boris Johnson to go. He is a charlatan who has treated us all with contempt and assumed that we were happy to forgive his endless lies, his cronyism, his playing fast and loose with both the law and the rules of Parliament and his dodgy dealing with Tory donors.
“As if that was not enough, he is also a political vandal – crashing our economy, overseeing a stagnating economy, fiddling while a spiral of inflation plunges millions into fuel and food poverty, mercilessly dehumanising asylum seekers.
“His empty boast that he got the big decisions right is a sick joke. He spectacularly mismanaged the Covid pandemic. Let us not forget that his government sent elderly people untested into care homes causing death and misery. Let us not forget that he treated the early days of the pandemic as a source of jokes and dithered in taking the urgent action that could have saved lives.
“He spat venom at striking workers – on the railways, in the postal service and even amongst the barristers – because they refused to accept pay cuts and fought back. Instead of seeking a resolution he planned laws to extend legalised scabbing.
“Good riddance Johnson – that should be his political epitaph. But let us not forget that it was his party, in its majority for a long time, that put the preservation of their guru above the needs of the country. It was his gaggle of loyal cabinet ministers who flattered him like obsequious courtiers at the foot of their emperor. It was the Tories who kept this rogue politician in office for so long. We need to clear them all out. We need a Labour government now.”
Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, was approached for comment but has not yet responded.
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