The domino of resignations in the British government continues – Boris Johnson before a joint parliamentary committee – The British Prime Minister does not resign and declares his determination to continue
By Thanasis Gavou
On the 27th, the resignations of members of his government arrived in the early afternoon Boris Johnson in Britain. Six deputy ministers continued the unstoppable bleeding of the government, with five of them writing a joint letter of resignation.
Kemi Badenoch, Neil O’Brien, Alex Berghardt, Lee Rowling and Julia Lopez say in their letter that it has now become clear that the government cannot function given the Pincher revelations and manipulation by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“In good faith we must ask you, for the good of the party and the country, to resign»concludes the letter of the five deputy ministers.
A separate letter of resignation was sent by Assistant Secretary of Labor Mims Davis.
Meanwhile, according to the Daily Mail, the Minister for Housing and one of the leading names of the Conservative Party Michael Gove he reportedly told the Prime Minister in the morning that he “must go”.
Former Defense Secretary and prominent Tory parliamentary voice Liam Fox also publicly withdrew his confidence from Boris Johnson.
Against this backdrop of suffocating pressure, Boris Johnson appears in the afternoon before the heads of the individual parliamentary committees, in a meeting where he is expected to be severely criticized.
“I will continue” Johnson responded to calls for resignation – More than 20 resignations from the government
Determined to remain in the prime ministership of Britain, Boris Johnson declared from the floor of the House of Commons, despite doubts about his political future after the mass resignations from his government.
From Tuesday night until noon on Sunday, Mr. Johnson had received letters of resignation from two ministers, seven deputy ministers and a dozen lower government officials. Most of these letters highlighted the lack of “integrity” attributed to the Prime Minister.
Asked at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session by Tory MP Tim Lawton if there were circumstances in which he would resign, Mr Johnson said he would do so if he felt the government could not deliver on the popular mandate.
“The job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he’s been given a colossal (popular) mandate is to carry on and that’s what I’m going to do,” added Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister was heavily attacked at the same meeting by main opposition Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said keeping Chris Pincher in government while Mr Johnson knew about the sexual harassment allegations showed how “serious” the condition.
Commenting mockingly on the resignations of government officials, Sir Keir said it was the first recorded instance in the annals of “the sinking ship abandoning the mouse”. He also attacked ministers who support Boris Johnson, describing them as “second-rate dogs who shake their heads” at their boss’s suggestions.
The harshest criticism, however, came from resigned Health Secretary Sajid Javid who, in a personal statement to Parliament, said he had given the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, but now the time had come to say “enough is enough”.
He emphasized that “the problem starts at the top” and has concluded that this problem is not going to be fixed. He added that he resigned because he was not willing to risk losing his “integrity”.
He also turned against the ministers who remain in the government, commenting that “they will have their reasons”, but also that “not doing something is an active decision”.
Meanwhile, the 1922 Committee, the Conservative party body charged with upholding the party’s constitution, is holding a crucial meeting in the afternoon.
Following the new data caused by the continuous resignations, but also the public declarations of loss of confidence in the Prime Minister by Conservative MPs who until now supported him, the Commission will discuss a possible change of the rules to immediately allow a new internal party impeachment procedure after that of last month.
The regulation in force states that in order to challenge the party leader again with such a procedure, 12 months must have passed since the last vote of confidence.
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