Boris Johnson has already endured nightmarish Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday in the wake of a dramatic evening of resignations, and must now appear before the House of Commons Liaison Committee.
The chaos began when chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid both stepped down last night saying they had lost confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership after it emerged he had not been honest about his decision-making in hiring Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip.
The latter’s resignation from that role last Thursday after admitting to drunkenly groping two male colleagues at private member’s club in central London prompted a slew of allegations about his conduct, which appears to have been an open secret in Westminster.
Mr Johnson’s belated admission that he had been briefed on the accusations against Mr Pincher, despite previously saying he had not known about the “specific” allegations against him – his hand apparently forced by an intervention from former senior civil servant Lord McDonald – was apparently too much for Mr Sunak and Mr Javid.
Having been forced to defend the PM over a slew of scandals since last autumn, from Owen Paterson to Partygate and on, they tendered their resignations and were swiftly followed by no fewer than 18 others.
The PM moved quickly to appoint Nadhim Zahawi and Steve Barclay as his new chancellor and health secretary respectively, as well as Michelle Donelan as his replacement education secretary to replace Mr Zahawi, but, despite the apparent support of the rest of his Cabinet, the damage looks mortal.
At PMQs, he was told to resign by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who branded his remaining front benchers “the charge of the lightweight brigade” and “a Z-list cast of nodding dogs”.
The SNP’s Ian Blackford, clearly enjoying himself immensely, called Mr Johnson a “dead parrot” in another Monty Python reference and accused him of “clinging to a desperate fantasy” while Conservatives David Davis, Tim Loughton and Gary Sambrook also broke ranks to suggest it was time for the PM to go before Mr Javid delivered a moving and utterly withering resignation statement explaining his exit.
Bruised from all of that and with barely time to swallow his lunch, Mr Johnson must now appear before Sir Bernard Jenkin’s Liaison Committee at 3pm, a gathering bringing together the heads of Parliament’s select committees, at which he will again be called upon to explain himself over the Pincher affair.
The meeting will be broadcast on BBC Parliament and covered live on The Independent website via our liveblog.
