Home » News » Boris Johnson shaken by resignation of prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid – POLITICO

Boris Johnson shaken by resignation of prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid – POLITICO

LONDON (AP) — Boris Johnson is left fighting for his political life after two top cabinet ministers, including his chancellor, resigned criticizing his integrity.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, the UK’s top finance minister and the second most powerful figure in the UK government after Johnson, resigned minutes after the dramatic departure of Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

Javid said he could no longer serve in the Johnson government in “good conscience”, while Sunak called for the government to be done “properly, competently and seriously” and gave voice to deep economic divisions with Johnson.

The departure of the two, who are close political allies and would be potential leadership candidates in the ruling Conservative Party, comes amid a bitter dispute over the UK prime minister’s handling of allegations of misconduct against a foreign minister. high rank.

And it follows months of bad headlines for the prime minister over the so-called Partygate scandal, in which Johnson was fined by police for breaking COVID-19 regulations and his control over 10 Downing Street was called into question.

He barely won a vote of confidence in his leadership, provoked by disgruntled Conservative MPs, last month, but has been hit harder by days of bad headlines over his knowledge of allegations of misconduct against former government executor Chris Pincher.

In its letter to prime ministerJavid said: “I am instinctively a team player, but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their government.”

He said the public no longer thought of conservatives as “stubborn decision-makers guided by strong values” or “competent to act in the national interest.”

In his own letter, Sunak said leaving was a decision he hadn’t made lightly, saying the public had a right to see governance carried out “properly, competently and seriously.”

And he stressed that, ahead of a joint speech with the prime minister scheduled for this week on the economy, it had become clear that their approaches were “fundamentally too different”. Sunak and Javid, himself a former foreign minister who resigned from the Johnson administration following the No.10 run, position themselves as fiscal conservatives.

Opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer said the government was collapsing, but accused top ministers of being “complicit every step of the way” when Johnson “disgraced his office and let his country down.”

David Frost, once a close ally of Johnson as his former Brexit negotiator, said Sunak and Javid had “done the right thing”.

He said that the events of the last week showed that “there was no possibility of the prime minister implementing the necessary change of approach to running a government or establishing a new political direction.”

This developing story is being updated.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.