Boris Johnson has finally agreed to resign as prime minister after days of immense pressure from cabinet and backbench MPs.
Mr Johnson has been plagued by a series of scandals, including becoming the first prime minister in office to face police action after he was fined over attending parties at No 10 during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown.
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was his appointment of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, despite previous allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against him.
The dysfunction and continued controversies at the heart of Downing Street prompted a slew of ministerial resignations, including chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday.
Mr Johnson finally wilted under the strain of repeated calls for him to go and on Thursday he spoke to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, to inform him of his decision to step down.
He is expected to remain as prime minister until a successor is in place, expected to be by the time of the Conservative Party conference in October.
The prime minister is reportedly writing his own resignation speech and is expected to make the announcement at 12.30pm. He has also started to appoint new ministers.
After Mr Johnson’s resignation, the timetable for the Tory leadership contest will be agreed between members of the backbench 1922 Committee, which runs the parliamentary proceedings, to whittle the candidates down to two, and Conservative headquarters.
But he is already facing backlash for planning to stay on as prime minister until autumn, with many calling for him to go now and be replaced in the interim by deputy prime minister Dominic Raab.
George Freeman, who quit as science minister on Thursday morning, said that now Mr Johnson had “finally done the decent thing” he should “hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty, allow her to appoint a caretaker under whom ministers can serve, so the Conservative Party can choose a new leader properly”.
Lord Barwell, who served as Theresa May’s chief of staff, said the leadership election must be “relatively quick” and there was a “question whether the PM will be able to lead a caretaker government in the meantime, will enough ministers agree to serve?”
