UK Politics

Boris Johnson’s resignation speech has been criticised as “ungracious and boastful” after he lashed out at the Conservative Party revolt that forced him to finally quit.The prime minister attacked the “eccentric” decision to oust him from No 10 and mourned the “pretty relentless sledging” he had received over the last few months.“I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world – but them’s the breaks,” he said at the podium outside No 10.Attacking the “herd instinct” at Westminster, he added: “When the herd moves, it moves. And my friends, in politics, no one is remotely indispensable, and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader.”One senior Tory MP told The Independent it was “pretty damn ungracious”, as a growing number of party figures call for Dominic Raab to be immediately installed as a caretaker PM.Another backbencher added: “He didn’t offer even the smallest shred of contrition. If there was any sense of guilt about forcing him out, he saw it off with that effort.”Senior Labour MP Chris Bryant complained that it was an “utterly disgraceful exit speech … selfish; self-centred, narcissistic, poor me the victim, no regrets, no fault, no mistakes, no apology, no resignation.”Piers Morgan said Mr Johnson had quit as he had led: “Boasting, blathering and blaming everyone but himself. What a terrible final speech by a man who turned out to be a truly terrible Prime minister.”Many others picked up on his use of the casual phrase, “Them’s the breaks” – tweeting pictures of the Queen attending Prince Philip’s funeral in dignified silence, and listing the many problems Mr Johnson leaves the country to face.Mr Johnson said it was “painful” not to be able to see through his ideas, and appeared to give only equivocal backing to his successor. “To that new leader, I say wherever he or she may be, I say I will give you as much support as I can,” he said.The speech comes as Tory MP Nus Ghani, deputy chair of the 1922 Committee, said Mr Raab should take over from Mr Johnson immediately on an interim basis.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng also suggested Mr Johnson should not stay until October, as has been suggested – saying a new leader is needed “as soon as practicable”.Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said the speech showed “no apology, no contrition – so Johnson”. The backbencher said he was worried about “further damage” Mr Johnson could do while he remains caretaker in the weeks ahead.The Brexiteer suggested Mr Johnson could say he was “unwell” and let Mr Raab take over. Challenged on Sky News over whether Mr Johnson was unwell, Mr Bridgen said: “That depends on who you ask.”George Freeman – who quit as science minister earlier today – tweeted: “Boris Johnson needs to hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty and advise her to call for a caretaker Prime Minister to take over today.”As debate continued about his future, Mr Johnson named Greg Clark as levelling up secretary, Robert Buckland as Welsh secretary, and James Cleverly as education secretary as he desperately tries to fill vacant cabinet posts in a bid to stay on as caretaker prime minister until the autumn.Shailesh Vara becomes the new Northern Ireland secretary after Brandon Lewis quit this morning, while Kit Malthouse will be the new Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office.With more spaces left to appoint, Tory rebel Aaron Bell, a red wall MP from the 2019 intake, said it was not “tenable for [Mr Johnson] to continue as a caretaker if he cannot fill the ministerial appointments he needs to”.Labour will stage a Commons vote to try to force Mr Johnson out of No 10 immediately, if he tries to stay on as caretaker.Keir Starmer urged Conservative MPs to “get rid of him” now – rather than serve a two-month interim period, while a successor is elected, saying: ”He can’t cling on in this way.” More

Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday after over 50 Tory MPs walked out from the government over his conduct.He gave a resignation statement from a lectern outside Downing Street – as is tradition – vowing to stay on in power until a new leader is elected, most likely by October.His resignation avoided the need for another no-confidence vote in his leadership, which was expected to take place next week once Tory MPs on the 1922 committee had changed the rules to allow it.But it has triggered a leadership race in the Conservative party that is likely to consume politics for the next few weeks or months.There is no obvious and clear successor to Mr Johnson, though there are a number of candidates in the running, including Liz Truss, Suella Braverman and Steve Baker who all said on Thursday they were considering it.Other names mentioned include Rishi Sunak, who was previously seen in Westminster as the obvious successor but whose stock has fallen in recent months.Others include Penny Mordaunt, a favourite among Tory members, and Ben Wallace the defence secretary. Yet more runners and riders also include Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, and Tom Tugendhat – it really is a wide-open field.The timescale of the leadership contest will be decided by the Conservative party’s 1922 committee and is not clear yet. Crucially, Mr Johnson has indicated that he wants to stay as caretaker prime minister during the process.All the MPs who want to take part will face a vote of Tory MPs, with the least popular candidate eliminated. Successive rounds of votes will then take place among Tory MPs – and crucially, the transfer of their supporters to other candidates – will whittle down the field to a final two candidates.Those final two candidates will then be put to the Tory membership, which will make the final decision.Boris Johnson has already said he will stay in office as caretaker until this process is completed. Then he would go to the palace and resign in a short audience with the Queen, and another MP would also go to the palace and ask to form a government. After that, the victor would head straight to Downing Street, and likely address the public from the doorstep. Though there may be some resistance to Mr Johnson remaining in office due to the manner of his departure. If that comes to a head within the Tory party then we may see a no-confidence vote after all – either in parliament or within the Tory party. This will become clear in the coming days.At no point in this process will there be an election or public vote to choose the new prime minister – though they might choose to call an early election to get their own mandate. More

Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday after over 50 Tory MPs walked out from the government over his conduct.He gave a resignation statement from a lectern outside Downing Street – as is tradition – vowing to stay on in power until a new leader is elected, most likely by October.His resignation avoided the need for another no-confidence vote in his leadership, which was expected to take place next week once Tory MPs on the 1922 committee had changed the rules to allow it.But it has triggered a leadership race in the Conservative party that is likely to consume politics for the next few weeks or months.There is no obvious and clear successor to Mr Johnson, though there are a number of candidates in the running, including Liz Truss, Suella Braverman and Steve Baker who all said on Thursday they were considering it.Other names mentioned include Rishi Sunak, who was previously seen in Westminster as the obvious successor but whose stock has fallen in recent months.Others include Penny Mordaunt, a favourite among Tory members, and Ben Wallace the defence secretary. Yet more runners and riders also include Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, and Tom Tugendhat – it really is a wide-open field.The timescale of the leadership contest will be decided by the Conservative party’s 1922 committee and is not clear yet. Crucially, Mr Johnson has indicated that he wants to stay as caretaker prime minister during the process.All the MPs who want to take part will face a vote of Tory MPs, with the least popular candidate eliminated. Successive rounds of votes will then take place among Tory MPs – and crucially, the transfer of their supporters to other candidates – will whittle down the field to a final two candidates.Those final two candidates will then be put to the Tory membership, which will make the final decision.Boris Johnson has already said he will stay in office as caretaker until this process is completed. Then he would go to the palace and resign in a short audience with the Queen, and another MP would also go to the palace and ask to form a government. After that, the victor would head straight to Downing Street, and likely address the public from the doorstep. Though there may be some resistance to Mr Johnson remaining in office due to the manner of his departure. If that comes to a head within the Tory party then we may see a no-confidence vote after all – either in parliament or within the Tory party. This will become clear in the coming days.At no point in this process will there be an election or public vote to choose the new prime minister – though they might choose to call an early election to get their own mandate. More

Boris Johnson has caved in to a Conservative Party revolt after months of ethics scandals and resigned as party leader, but he remains Britain’s prime minister — for now — while a successor is chosen.With British politics in turmoil, here’s a look at what will happen next:CONSERVATIVE CONTESTJohnson’s resignation on Thursday, which came after dozens of ministers quit his government in protest, sparks a party contest to replace him as leader. All Conservative lawmakers are eligible to run, and party officials could open the nominations within hours.After candidates have come forward, Conservative lawmakers vote in a series of elimination rounds. The candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out, and voting continues until there are two contenders left. Depending on the number of candidates, the process could be completed within days.The final two candidates will be put to a vote of the full party membership across the country — about 180,000 people — by postal ballot. That process is expected to take several weeks, with the exact timetable up to the 1922 Committee that runs party elections.The winner of the vote will become both Conservative leader and prime minister, without the need for a national election.Already the list of likely contenders is long and growing, from recently resigned Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, his successor in that job Nadhim Zahawi, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Attorney General Suella Braverman and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.WHO’S IN CHARGE?While Johnson has resigned as party leader, but he is still prime minister until his successor is elected.His predecessor, Theresa May, remained in office for more than a month between announcing her resignation and the selection of Johnson as the new Tory leader.But many Conservatives say Johnson can’t stay in office — he has simply lost too many ministers through resignations to be able to govern. They are demanding he step down as prime minister and let an interim leader take the reins. If he does that, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is a likely caretaker candidate.ANOTHER CRISIS?Johnson shows no signs of going early. He appointed several new Cabinet ministers on Thursday to replace those he has lost, and said they would “serve as I will until a new leader is in place.”If party officials press Johnson to quit sooner and he refuses, the chaos engulfing the government could worsen in the short term. Already the government has had to cancel business in Parliament because it has no ministers available to attend.Gavin Barwell, who served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Theresa May, said “there was a “question whether the PM will be able to lead a caretaker government in the meantime — will enough ministers agree to serve?” More

Boris Johnson has named Greg Clark as levelling up secretary, Robert Buckland as Welsh secretary, and James Cleverly as education secretary as he filled vacant cabinet posts in a bid to stay on as caretaker prime minister until the autumn.Shailesh Vara becomes the new Northern Ireland secretary after Brandon Lewis quit this morning, while Kit Malthouse will be the new Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office.Mr Johnson announced his resignation shortly before 1pm on Thursday after mass resignations from the ministerial ranks. He condemned the “eccentric” Tory revolt.The PM is scrabbling to fill ministerial vacancies as he seeks to continue in office until a new Tory leader is elected, with some in the party pushing for his immediate “eviction” from No 10.Mr Clark – a Remainer and ‘One Nation’ Tory moderate – is replacing Michael Gove in leading the levelling up department after Mr Johnson sacked in his pro-Brexit ally on Wednesday night. One No 10 source dubbed Mr Gove a “snake”.Mr Buckland, another moderate from the One Nation wing, rejoins Mr Johnson’s cabinet after he axed as justice secretary last September. He told Sky News that he accepted the role on the basis the PM was going, and wanted to “serve the country”.Mr Cleverly had been a junior minister at the Foreign Office, while Mr Malthouse had been a junior minister at the Home Office.The appointments come as Tory MP Nus Ghani, deputy chair of the 1922 Committee, said deputy PM Dominic Raab should take over from Mr Johnson immediately on an interim basis.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has suggested he does not want Mr Johnson to stay until October, as has been suggested – saying a new leader is needed “as soon as practicable”.George Freeman – who quit as science minister earlier today – tweeted: “Boris Johnson needs to hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty and advise her to call for a caretaker Prime Minister to take over today.”Tory rebel Aaron Bell, a red wall MP from the 2019 intake, said in the Commons it was not “tenable for [Mr Johnson] to continue as a caretaker if he cannot fill the ministerial appointments he needs to”.Despite several vacant junior ministerial posts, Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis insisted: “Government business will continue to function. Other secretaries of state can deal with the issues for other departments.”The interim period for a leadership contest is normally uncontroversial – but never before has a prime minister initially refused to leave power after a cabinet revolt, or previously broken other conventions.Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s now bitter enemy, tweeted: “Evict TODAY or he’ll cause CARNAGE … Raab should be interim PM by evening.”Ruth Davidson, the former Tory leader in Scotland, warned: “There’s no way he can stay on until October. It’s arrant nonsense to think he can. Someone needs to grip this.”Labour will stage a Commons vote to try to force Mr Johnson out of No 10 immediately, if he tries to stay on as caretaker.Keir Starmer urged Conservative MPs to “get rid of him” now – rather than serve a two-month interim period, while a successor is elected, saying: ”He can’t cling on in this way.”The timescale of the leadership contest will be decided by the Conservative party’s 1922 committee and is not clear yet – but could take up to eight weeks.Crucially, Mr Johnson has indicated that he wants to stay as caretaker prime minister during the process. But his messy exit appears to have seen remaining support ebb away.Attorney general Suella Braverman has been mocked in the House of Commons after she declared her leadership ambitions on live television, despite insisting she would not resign her role.Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry later said: “Can I say what an honour it is to be at this despatch box facing the next prime minister as she waits her call from the palace. A true honour.” More

Boris Johnson’s departure as prime minister can lead to a more “constructive” and “respectful” relationship between Britain and the EU, Michel Barnier has said.The former chief Brexit negotiator, who put together the withdrawal agreement in talks with Mr Johnson’s team, said he hoped things could become “more friendly”.The prime minister announced he was stepping down on Thursday afternoon after Cabinet revolt that saw more than 50 Tory MPs walk out of governemnt jobs. The turmoil has not gone unnoticed across the Channel. “The departure of Boris Johnson opens a new page in relations with the UK,” Mr Barnier said in a message posted on social media. “May it be more constructive, more respectful of commitments made, in particular regarding peace & stability in NI, and more friendly with partners in the EU.”Because there’s so much more to be done together.”The former head of the EU’s Brexit task force, who has since retired from the European Commission, was perhaps the most recognisable face of the European Union during Brexit talks. All likely candidates to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister are committed to Brexit, though some like Ben Wallace and Liz Truss supported Remain before the referendum. But it is the particularly combative approach the UK took to relations with the EU that Mr Johnson took which Brussels will hope might be dialled back.The prime minister was often accused of using Brexit as a political tool to rally support at home among Tory MP and Leave voters – deliberately causing problems so he could face off against the EU.It is the prime minister’s approach to the Northern Ireland border that is causing the most anguish in Brussels currently. The prime minister has passed legislation to unilaterally overwrite parts of the deal, which the EU and most observers say breaks international law.MEPs in the European Parliament  slammed Boris Johnson‘s “Fawlty Towers approach to politics” on Wednesday, with parties from across the EU political spectrum gathering in in Strasbourg to slam the UK’s plan to tear up parts of the Brexit deal.Boris Johnson has characterised the changes as minor, European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, who has taken over Mr Barnier’s Brexit duties, said the approach had “no political or legal justification whatsoever”.He said that it was “legally and politically inconceivable that the UK decides” how the EU’s trade border was enforced, a situation which the legislation would effectively create. More

Tory leadership hopefuls are jockeying for position as they bid to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.Mr Johnson announced he would quit on Thursday following an avalanche of ministerial resignations and cabinet walkouts. However, he has said he will remain in office until the Conservative Party are able to elect his successor. This could take several weeks and some within the party are calling for the process to start as soon as possible, rather than the autumn – Mr Johnson has vowed to stay until then.Here are the latest odds from BetFair Exchange on who is the favourite to take the Tory crown.Penny Mordaunt, Portsmouth North MP and international trade minister: 5/1Rishi Sunak, Richmond (Yorkshire) MP and former chancellor: 6/1Ben Wallace, Wyre & Preston North MP and defence secretary: 13/2 Liz Truss, South West Norfolk MP and foreign secretary: 8/1Sajid Javid, Bromsgrove MP and former health secretary: 9/1Nadhim Zahawi, Stratford-on-Avon MP and chancellor: 10/1Jeremy Hunt, South West Surrey MP and former foreign secretary: 13/1Tom Tugendhat, Tonbridge and Malling MP : 15/1Michael Gove, Surrey Heath MP and former levelling up secretary : 21/1Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, has overall responsibility for organising leadership contests.The timetable for a contest is agreed by the committee and Tory Party HQ, with a new Tory leader expected to be in place by the party conference in October.Both Tory MPs and Conservative Party members play a decisive role in electing the next leader.Tory MPs will whittle down the candidates to a final two through a balloting process, with party members then voting on which of the two candidates they would prefer.The first stage sees the number of candidates whittled down, with a series of ballots.If necessary, across multiple ballots, the candidates with the lowest number of votes are eliminated and MPs are re-balloted until only two candidates are left.For example, during the 2019 leadership contest to replace Theresa May, which saw Boris Johnson elected leader, there were initially 10 candidates in the first ballot, with several rounds of balloting taking place until only Mr Johnson and Jeremy Hunt were left.At this stage, the two MPs left will face a vote of Conservative Party members.It means that members of the party will get their say on who should be the leader of the Conservative Party, as well as the next prime minister. More

In less than 48 hours, the British government collapsed on itself amid a torrent of ministerial resignations that stripped multiple departments across Whitehall of their chief decision-makers and, eventually, forced Boris Johnson out of office.There have been tears among staff in No 10 and pockets of officials turning to the bottle, knowing that the fight is up or quietly celebrating the end. Conferences and meetings with key government stakeholders have been cancelled, at a cost of thousands of pounds. Even insiders at the US Embassy have raised the question of “what the fuck is going on”.“We’re headless, incapable of taking any decisions at all,” said one official at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). “A zombie government,” said another Whitehall source.More than 50 ministers stepped down from their posts prior to Johnson’s resignation, piercing gaping holes in the machinery of government and making it near impossible for civil servants and politicians to fulfil their duties to the state.The science minister, George Freeman, told the BBC that the government was facing a “constitutional crisis” which is “seriously undermining our authority in key negotiations on the world stage… nowhere more than in the vital areas of science, research, technology and innovation…”He added: “This is damaging our international reputation. I’m trying to negotiate… we can’t do that with this chaos.”The DLUHC source said that servants “have become used to the volatility that comes from having Boris Johnson involved in government, during the May and Johnson regimes, but this is something else”.DLUHC was stripped clean of the majority of its ministers, including Michael Gove, who was fired by Johnson on Wednesday evening for telling him to resign (though one No 10 insider said the secretary of state had been shown the door for scheming against the PM and encouraging others to walk).What comes next for DLUHC — the department entrusted with delivering the Tories’ vaunted ‘Levelling Up’ agenda — is now down to its new secretary of state, Greg Clark.“Gove has a very clear vision of the Government’s levelling up agenda, achieving success for the Tories’ programme and saving the taxpayers’ money,” the source said. “Losing him, and all but one of our Commons’ Ministers, has been extremely destabilising, and quite confusing for newer staff, and all our stakeholders who’ll now play for time. “Like all departments, DLUHC already has a backlog of decisions that will probably be delayed until after the summer recess. If the prime minister wants to maximise his lasting impact he should re-appoint Micheal Gove during the transition.”An emergency meeting has been called between the department’s permanent secretary and directors to determine what the events of the last two days mean “for all the work we’ve been doing to deliver the government’s agenda.”One key policy that now looks set to be put on hold across Whitehall is the goal of slimming down the civil service to its pre-pandemic levels — a vision pursued by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister entrusted with government efficiency.Among other issues, this topic was set to be discussed today by civil servants and senior policy leaders at a major conference, which has since been scrapped amid the chaos.One Whitehall source said all government departments had been pumping considerable “brainpower and resources” into Rees-Mogg’s “pet project” over the past month or so.“Some of our best people have been doing rigorous audits and coming up with suggestions for how to move forward with this, likely at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. We don’t know if the new PM will want to pursue this. It could be something that is dropped and forgotten about.“More generally, ministers across government will have their own pet projects which could now come to an end. It naturally creates a lot of wastage.”For the last few days, civil servants have been glued to their phones and TVs as much as the rest of the country, the source said, adding that it has been “quite demoralising to work for ministers who go out and defend the indefensible.”They added: “But it’s heartening to see them eventually take a stand and show some principle”.Other departments have been more removed from the unfolding drama, such as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which has managed to keep hold of its ministers.Foreign secretary Liz Truss herself has been out of the country, on a trip to Indonesia for a G20 meeting, but is now flying home to no doubt launch her own leadership bid.“We’ve been in a weird position because none of our ministers went,” the FCDO source said. “So we have just been viewing the storm but been unaffected.”What comes next is anyone’s guess. Confirming his resignation outside 10 Downing Street, in a speech in which he blamed the “herd instinct” of the Conservatives for his demise, Johnson indicated he will stay on as PM until a new leader is elected — but MPs are desperately urging him to stand down with immediate effect.A “caretaker” cabinet is already being hastily put together following the walk-outs of the past two days, but it’s expected these ministers will soon be replaced themselves once the new prime minister takes office.The looming leadership battle will likely prolong the “paralysis” currently engulfing Whitehall, the DLUHC source said, leaving Britain caught in a state of limbo in the months ahead as it attempts to recover from the aftershocks of this administration.For now, though, many civil servants are delighted that Johnson’s time is finally up. “See you fucking later,” said one Downing Street source. “Close the door on the way out.” More