UK Politics

Boris Johnson is clinging to power by a thread after the twin resignations of his chancellor and health secretary over the Chris Pincher scandal plunged him into his biggest crisis yet. The disintegration of the cabinet – long seen as the event most likely to force the prime minister out of No 10 – dramatically cut the odds on his premiership ending imminently.Sajid Javid, the health secretary, walked out telling Mr Johnson the Conservative party is “bigger than any one individual” – while Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, protested that “standards are worth fighting for”.Earlier on Tuesday, No 10 had admitted the prime minister knew a misconduct complaint had been upheld against Mr Pincher when he appointed him to the whips’ office, triggering an eruption of Tory anger.The resignations came just moments after a grovelling apology by Mr Johnson for the “mistake” of promoting the minister – a move No 10 had spent five days defending.Keir Starmer said it was “clear that this government is now collapsing” and lashed out at ministers who had been “complicit” as the prime minister “disgraced his office”.The Labour leader called for a general election – something No 10 threatened Tory MPs with only weeks ago, to stop them moving against Mr Johnson – saying: “We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a change of government.”Bim Afolami, a vice chair of the Tory party resigned dramatically on air, and David Frost, the former Brexit minister, also called on Mr Johnson to go.But other cabinet ministers rallied around to stem the bleeding, including Liz Truss, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Nadhim Zahawi and Kwasi Kwarteng.Jacob Rees-Mogg brushed off talk that the end was near, arguing the prime minister had only made “a minor mistake” and saying: “Losing chancellors is something that happens.”Mr Johnson also moved swiftly to make clear he will not be quitting with an emergency reshuffle to fill the vacant posts.Mr Zahawi was made the new chancellor, a promotion from education secretary, after winning a tussle with Ms Truss, while Stephen Barclay was moved from the Cabinet Office to health.The dual resignations came after the tactic of filming cabinet meetings backfired when its members were captured with worried, gloomy faces – prompting speculation that a revolt was near.Senior Tories had urged Mr Johnson’s top team to pull the plug on his premiership, as party rules prevent – for now – a second no-confidence vote for one year.“Backbenchers have done all they can. It is up to the cabinet to decide if they will put up, or if they will continue to shut up,” the former health minister Steve Brine told The Independent.Nick Gibb, the respected former schools minister, likened the situation to the crisis in the US where “you worry whether democracy is safe” – as he also urged the cabinet to act.“We have to make sure that doesn’t happen in this country. We have to get rid of the rot in our political system,” he told BBC Radio 4.Tim Loughton, another former anti-Johnson minister, said: “At last, we’ve got two very senior cabinet ministers who have absolutely done the decent thing. And I hope this will now set the course that we do need, a change of leader at the top.”Mr Javid and Mr Sunak’s resignations were announced within moments of each other, but sources close to the pair denied they were discussed in advance or were coordinated.Earlier, in a devastating intervention, a former head of the Foreign Office revealed Mr Johnson was briefed personally about the complaint against Mr Pincher, in 2019.Simon McDonald said he was speaking out because the account given by Downing Street – which first claimed the prime minister was unaware of any allegations – was “not true”.In a letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner, the retired mandarin said the 2019 allegations “were similar to those made about his behaviour at the Carlton Club” – where Mr Pincher had been accused of groping two men.“Mr Pincher deceived me and others in 2019. He cannot be allowed to use the confidentiality of the process three years ago to pursue his predatory behaviour in other contexts,” he wrote.The prime minister’s spokesperson had continued to insist the information about Mr Pincher’s behaviour was no reason to bar him from the job as deputy chief whip, with responsibility for Tory MP’s welfare.In his resignation letter, Mr Sunak also cast doubt on the prime minister’s honesty about the true state of the economy, writing that their approaches are “fundamentally too different” and that “people know that if something is too good to be true then it’s not true”.Four unpaid parliamentary aides also quit, as did Andrew Murrison as the government’s trade envoy to Morocco, telling Mr Johnson: “Your position has become unrecoverable. I strongly urge you to resign.”The respected Institute for Government hit out at dishonesty in No 10, calling on cabinet secretary Simon Case to step in and saying: “The prime minister’s official spokesman cannot double as a liar.”Nicola Sturgeon predicted the prime ministers is now doomed, tweeting: “Feels like end might be nigh for Johnson – not a moment too soon.”Roger Gale, a Tory critic of Mr Johnson, predicted he would not go willingly, saying: “He will try to hang on but I don’t think that he can.”Mr Johnson must now face a two-hour grilling by a Commons committee on Wednesday, when the topics on the agenda include “integrity in politics and the rule of law”.In his response to Mr Sunak, the prime minister praised his “outstanding service” and made no mention of the reason for the chancellor quitting.Likewise, he told Mr Javid he “will be greatly missed”, but omitted any reference to his former health secretary’s attack on his “integrity”. More

Boris Johnson’s government is “collapsing” and the prime minister is “unfit” to government, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said as he backed the idea of a snap general election.The Labour leader also said he would support a vote if one were called in the days ahead, after Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid threw No 10 into turmoil by quitting as chancellor and health secretary.Mr Johnson faces the biggest leadership crisis yet of his premiership as his handling of the row over scandal-hit ex-deputy chief whip Chris Pincher became the latest issue to raise questions over his judgement.“He is unfit to be prime minister, he is not fit to govern the country,” Sir Keir told broadcasters. “We need a change of government.”Asked if he would support an election if one were called in the next few weeks, Starmer said: “Yes. We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a change of government.”Sir Keir described Mr Sunak and Mr Javid as the prime minister’s “cheerleaders throughout this sorry saga”, pointing out that they “backed him for months and months and months”.The Labour leader said: “Backing him when he broke the law, backing him when he lied repeatedly, backing him when he mocked the sacrifices of the British people.”Starmer added: “Resigning today means nothing against their complicity for all those months when they should have seen him for what he was, they knew who he was.”The Labour leader also suggested a change of government would help to address the “big issues” like the cost-of-living crisis and could provide “political stability”.Mr Johnson admitted he should have sacked Mr Pincher when he was told about misconduct claims against him when he was a Foreign Office minister in 2019, but instead Mr Johnson went on to appoint him to other government roles.Asked if that was an error, Mr Johnson said: “I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do. I apologise to everybody who has been badly affected by it.”But Mr Sunak and Mr Javid resigned soon after his comments to broadcasters. Bim Afolami the quit as Tory vice chair live on air – telling TalkTV the PM no longer had his support or the support of the country and should now “step down”.Dominic Raab, Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Priti Patel and Ben Wallace were among the senior cabinet ministers standing by Mr Johnson on Tuesday night as the government implodes.But red wall Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, a Johnson loyalist, then resigned as PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis, saying the government had become distracted “dealing with our reputational damage”Tory MP Saqib Bhatti stepped down as PPS to outgoing health secretary Sajid Javid, saying “integrity and trust” had been undermined, while Andrew Murrison resigned as one of the PM’s trade envoys.Tory rebels urged Mr Johnson to quit – before vowing to oust him soon through a fresh confidence vote if he clings on.One backbencher opposed to the PM told The Independent: “I had been hoping some cabinet ministers would show some backbone. If he clings on, we will have to get rid of him.”Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale: “There comes a time when the game is up. I would like to think that even at this stage Boris Johnson is an honourable man, has to go and resign. If he doesn’t we’ll do it for him.” More

Nadhim Zahawi is the new Chancellor, after winning a tussle with Liz Truss for the role in Boris Johnson’s crisis reshuffle.The education secretary – a likely leadership contender if the prime minister is forced out – emerged as the big winner from the shock resignation of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid.The announcement came after an hour-long stand-off in Downing Street, during which Mr Zahawi was rumoured to be ready to quit unless he was handed the job at No 11.Instead, he has thrown the beleaguered Mr Johnson a lifeline – but the prime minister is still fighting for his political life after a long-expected cabinet coup was launched.A snap YouGov poll found that 69 per cent of Britons now say that he should resign, up 11 per cent in just one month.The universities minister Michelle Donelan becomes the new education secretary, in another significant promotion, after Stephen Barclay was moved from the Cabinet Office to health.The disintegration of the cabinet – long seen as the event most likely to force the prime minister out of No 10 – dramatically cut the odds on his premiership ending within months, or even weeks.Mr Javid, the health secretary, walked out telling Mr Johnson the Conservative party is “bigger than any one individual” – while MrSunak, the chancellor, protested that “standards are worth fighting for”.Earlier, No 10 had admitted the prime minister was told a misconduct complaint had been upheld against Mr Pincher when he promoted him to the whips’ office, triggering an eruption of Tory anger.The resignations came just moments after a grovelling apology by Mr Johnson for the “mistake” of promoting the minister – a move No 10 had spent five days defending.Keir Starmer said it was clear “clear that this government is now collapsing” and lashed out at ministers who had been “complicit” as the prime minister “disgraced his office”.The Labour leader called for a general election – something No 10 threatened Tory MPs with only weeks ago, to stop them moving against Mr Johnson – saying: “We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a change of government.”Bim Afolami, a vice chair of the Tory party resigned dramatically on air, and David Frost, the former Brexit minister, called on Mr Johnson to go.But other cabinet ministers joined Mr Zahawi in rallying around to stem the bleeding, including Ms Truss, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, and Kwasi Kwarteng. More

If Boris Johnson’s downfall is triggered by the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, it will be a remarkably swift one. It is easy to forget that only nine months ago, Johnson was riding high. The Tory conference in Manchester was a delayed (by Covid-19) celebration of his greatest triumph – the thumping majority of 80 he won at the 2019 general election. The first act of Johnson’s fall from grace came when he foolishly tried to save the skin of fellow Brexiteer Owen Paterson after he broke Commons rules on lobbying. Although a revolt by Tory MPs forced Johnson to back down, this was the first in a series of self-inflicted disasters which exposed fatal weaknesses in Johnson’s character (that were always there) – a tendency to think the rules do not really apply to him, and a determination to defend members of his loyal tribe even when they transgress. These traits would return with a vengeance during Johnson’s shambolic handling of the scandal engulfing Chris Pincher, who he made his deputy chief whip in February despite knowing about previous complaints about his behaviour – a reward for Pincher’s role in saving Johnson when the Partygate row blew up in January this year. (The traits were also apparent when Johnson declined to sack his closest aide Dominic Cummings for his trip to Durham during lockdown). The Pincher and Partygate controversies highlighted another Johnson character flaw: the former journalist liked to dismiss any media storm as something that would soon blow over. This led him to dissemble rather than find out the facts during any crisis before rushing out a statement that, at best, was economical with the truth. So there were “no parties” at Downing Street during lockdown and the rules were observed at all times, he told the Commons. Allies fear that statements Johnson made during two sessions of prime minister’s questions last December will form the danger points in the privileges committee’s investigation into whether the PM “knowingly misled parliament” – a resigning matter if he is found guilty. Not that Johnson would necessarily obey this rule either – one reason why his Tory backbench critics are determined to force another vote of confidence in him before the committee’s inquiry concludes this autumn. Even his critics acknowledge Johnson’s strengths. The former Mayor of London has never been a conventional politician; his appearances on Have I Got News for You showed he could appeal to parts of the electorate the Tories had long since been unable to reach. Few politicians are known by their first names. The Leave campaign would not have won the 2016 Brexit referendum without him, as Nigel Farage acknowledged. No other Tory leader would have scooped up traditional Labour seats in the north and Midlands. Yet his undoubted campaigning and communications skills were no qualification for the hard grind of government, which requires an attention to detail and a laser-like focus to ensure delivery that have never been Johnson’s strong suit. Perhaps Michael Gove saw this coming in 2016 when he spectacularly ended Johnson’s first Tory leadership bid by quitting as his campaign manager and running himself. Gove said memorably: “Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.” Remarkably, Cummings considered a plan to remove Johnson only weeks after the 2019 election – another recognition that his boss was unsuited to government. Those doubts would grow as, despite rhetoric about levelling up, his government failed to find a mission, or resolve the Tories’ split between tax-cutters and big spenders like Johnson himself. His party knew what it was getting when they chose Johnson. It knew he had been sacked by The Times for making up a quote, and later from the Tory frontbench by Michael Howard for lying about an affair. As one Tory MP put it: “We knew we were making a pact with the devil, but we thought he could run a government. He can’t.” After the Paterson, Partygate and Pincher affairs, the character traits that were once widely seen as strengths – as someone who would ignore convention and bulldoze the establishment to “get Brexit done” for the people – turned into weaknesses. Whenever he departs, Johnson’s political epitaph will probably be that he believed in “one rule for us, and another for everyone else.” More

Rishi Sunak has resigned as chancellor following the explosive jumping ship of fellow Cabinet minister Sajid Javid.The now former chancellor of the exchequer and health secretary stepped down amid anger over Boris Johnson’s handling of misconduct allegations against Chris Pincher.It comes after No 10 admitted Mr Johnson was aware when promoting Mr Pincher to his role as deputy chief whip that a misconduct complaint had been upheld against him – causing simmering concern among Tory MPs about party standards to boil over.In his resignation letter, Mr Sunak told Mr Johnson that the government “cannot continue like this.” He concluded: “It has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different.” More

Boris Johnson’s premiership was in peril last night after two cabinet ministers and potential leadership candidates quit the government in protest at Downing Street’s handling of a series of recent scandals.Sajid Javid, the health secretary and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, walked out of the cabinet after Mr Johnson apologised for promoting Chris Pincher to the role of deputy chief whip in February despite being told of a sexual misconduct complaint against the Tamworth MP in 2019.Further government resignations were expected by the end of the night but Mr Johnson showed no signs of calling it a day himself as a number of loyal ministers – including Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary and Dominic Raab, the deputy PM and justice secretary – backed him to continue in No 10 Downing Street.But what happens if he does decide in a few days’ time that he simply can’t go on? Although Mr Raab was given the title of deputy PM by Mr Johnson, the Conservative Party has no ‘second-in-command’ position.Because the Tories have a majority and still remain as the government, the cabinet could nominate an interim PM before the party holds a proper leadership contest – a process which usually takes several weeks – to choose a permanent successor to Mr Johnson.Any new leader could subsequently face claims by the opposition that they were not personally given a mandate by the British public to govern the country. They may then decide that they need to hold a general election – especially if they struggled to assert their authority over MPs following what would be a divisive leadership contest.At present, the only way, really, that Mr Johnson can leave No 10 is if he decides to quit himself. This is because the Conservative Party held a confidence vote on his leadership in June.He narrowly won that ballot and under current party rules, another contest cannot be triggered for 12 months. There have been reports, however, that Tory rebels who voted against Mr Johnson in the confidence vote plan a takeover of executive positions on the party’s 1922 Committee in a bid to change the rules.The 1922 Committee is made up of a group of influential backbench MPs who decide the rules on leadership contests. It is not clear that Mr Johnson would win a second ballot given the resignations of Mr Javid and Mr Sunak, who followed their colleague Oliver Dowden, the Tory Party chairman, out of government. Mr Dowden quit after the party’s damaging byelection defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton earlier this month.In the confidence vote, a total of 41 per cent of MPs voted against Mr Johnson. But this included MPs who were on the government payroll and therefore more likely to back the PM to save their jobs.At the time of the vote there were around 160-170 on the government payroll – or nearly half of the party’s 358 MPs.Later on Tuesday, the vice-chairman of the Conservative Party quit live on TV, after saying he could no longer support the PMBim Afolami, the MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, followed the chancellor and health secretary with his resignation after Mr Johnson apologised for his handling of the row over scandal-hit former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.Mr Afolami said on Talk TV’s The News Desk with Tom Newton-Dunn: “(After) recent allegations about the former deputy chief whip and other things that have happened over recent weeks, I just don’t think the prime minister any longer has, not just my support, but he doesn’t have, I don’t think, the support of the party, or indeed the country any more.”I think for that reason he should step down.”Mr Afolami said he was “probably not” the party’s vice chairman “after having said that”.Confirming he would be resigning, he continued: “I think you have to resign because I can’t serve under the Prime Minister – but I say that with regret because I think this government has done some great things.”I think the prime minister has a strong legacy in a huge range of areas, but I just think that when you’ve lost trust of people, and the prime minister asked at the confidence vote to be given time to instil that trust, I took that as many others did in the party.”But I think it’s become clear, particularly after losing the support of two of his closest cabinet colleagues, that I think the time has come for him to stand down.”Mr Johnson faces Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Question on Wednesday. Mr Starmer will seek to inflict maximum damage on the PM after being accused of missing an “open goal” at a previous session, following Mr Johnson’s narrow victory in the confidence vote.Earlier Mr Starmer said the government was “collapsing” because Mr Johnson is “unfit to govern”.”That is dawning on many people across the Conservative Party, but they have to reflect on that, that they have backed him for months and months and months,” he told broadcasters.”Resigning today means nothing against their complicity for all those months when they should have seen him for what he was, they knew who he was.”We need a change of government.” More

Raucous laughter rang through the House of Lords chamber today as a statement on the government’s “robust system for upholding public standards” was read out to peers.Conservative peer Lord True repeated the bulletin issued earlier in the Commons by Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis as a series of reports emerged of allegations that Chris Pincher had repeatedly made unwanted sexual advances to men.Peals of laughter erupted from peers as a grinning Lord True said: “We are fortunate in this country to have a sophisticated and robust system for upholding public standards.“And the system is multi-faceted; it is made up of interlocking and complementary elements.”Baroness Evans, leader of the House of Lords, also appeared unable to contain her laughter.It comes after Mr Ellis was heckled by opposition MPs throughout his 49-minute appearance in the Commons earlier today as he attempted to explain and defend the government’s handling of Mr Pincher’s alleged misconduct.He faced questions about Boris Johnson’s knowledge of concerns raised against Mr Pincher, the MP for Tamworth who last week quit as the government’s deputy chief whip following claims he groped two men at a private members’ club.The Cabinet Office minister, in his initial reply to an urgent question from Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, detailed the bodies and institutions in place to try and uphold standards in public life.He added: “No system can replace the fundamental importance of personal responsibility.“We all know this to be true.“Codes and rules and oversight bodies are there to guide us but we all ultimately in public life must choose for ourselves how to act.”Mr Johnson is facing a spiralling backlash from within his party over his handling of the Mr Pincher row after he apparently forgot being told about an official complaint about the former minister’s “inappropriate” behaviour.The prime minister’s spokesman confirmed that Mr Johnson was briefed on the complaint by officials at the foreign office in 2019, a “number of months” after it took place. More

Sajid Javid has dramatically resigned as health secretary in the first of two major blows to Boris Johnson on Tuesday evening. In a tweet, he wrote: “I have spoken to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Secretary of State for Health & Social Care.“It has been an enormous privilege to serve in this role, but I regret that I can no longer continue in good conscience.”Mr Javid’s departure was swiftly followed by chancellor Rishi Sunak’s exit from the Prime Minister’s crumbling cabinet. More