UK crisis: trapped, Boris Johnson resigns as Prime Minister, but will remain in office until his successor is chosen

London: British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson Thursday announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, after, after A series of scandals and the pressures of its own political space, but He will remain prime minister until… His successor is appointed.

Three years after triumphantly coming to power, Johnson, 58, was forced to resign after more than 50 ministers quit and Tory MPs said he must go. A little afternoon in London, and after a morning of releases, A reclusive and vulnerable Johnson spoke outside his Downing Street headquarters to confirm that he would resign.

“It is clear that it is the will of the conservative parliamentary group to have a new leader of the party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson confessed when announcing his resignation in a letter to the nation in front of the famous black door No. 10 Downing Street.

“The process of electing that new leader must begin now,” Johnson said in a brief speech. “Today I appointed a government that will serve as I will until a new leader is appointed,” he added.

The Conservative Party will now have to elect a new leader over the summer to replace Johnson, possibly from October, as its leader and therefore head of government.

Resignation was not enough for his critics, Who says he shouldn’t be allowed to stay as interim prime minister and that It should be removed as soon as possible.

For opposition leader, Labor Party Keir Starmer, his future departure is “good news”, but it is not enough. “We need a real change of government,” He said he was considering a proposal to blame the government for precipitating the call for an early general election.

The Conservative Party leader has resisted calls from his government to leave after a series of moral scandals. The last episode, starring one of the closest officials, the Parliamentary Representative Chris Pincher, accused of sexual harassment. Until yesterday he rejected calls to resign and said he had a mandate to be elected to remain in office. But Johnson He finally relented after more than 50 cabinet members withdrew from their posts and asked him to resign.

Johnson survived a no-confidence vote by his deputies in early June, set out to attempt to remove him from power. With the support of 211 of 359 lawmakers, he saved his position, but his 148 votes against him made it clear that discontent did not stop growing. Although the rules of the game state that this measure cannot be repeated over the next year, many have called for the change to attempt another maneuver on the spot against Johnson.

From the so-called “partigate” –The scandal of parties in Downing Street during the closures due to the Covid pandemic– Even the erratic financing of the luxurious repair of his official house, through accusations of nepotism, scandals around Johnson multiply.

A strong leader after the 2019 legislative election, when he achieved the most important Conservative majority in decades thanks to a promise to deliver Brexit, the prime minister is now falling sharply in the opinion polls, with a majority of Britons deeming him a “liar”. Indeed, the prime minister will be investigated by a parliamentary committee to determine whether he intentionally misled MPs when he denied setting up parties in December that violated the anti-power legislation.

On the other hand there is the fact that He claimed he was not aware of the accusations against Pincher. When many asserted otherwise, Johnson declared that he did not know and then admitted to “forgetting”. However, it was recently revealed that the president was aware of these complaints before his promotion to the position of internal party responsibility.

Pincher resigned last week as director of space after accusations Touching two men in a private club. This led to a series of reports about previous allegations against him, and a succession of explanations from the government about what Johnson knew at the time of his appointment.

All this panorama, plus Recent electoral setbacksAs recently as June 23, in two midterms, he convinced a growing number of rebels in the Conservative Party that Johnson could no longer lead them.

In order to increase pressure on Johnson this week a Cataracts from resignations of which they were a part More than 50 officials from the UK government.

in a night TuesdayMinisters healthAnd the Sajid Javedand based on financeAnd the Rishi SunakAt about the same time, they announced their resignations in rejection of the ongoing scandals surrounding the prime minister. The Wednesdaya Thirty officials From the lower ranks joined in the resignations and a group of cabinet members moved to Downing Street to speak to the Prime Minister need to quit.

Given Johnson’s refusal, yesterday Early in the morning also the Ministers of State for Treasury Affairs left the government, Helen Whatley; of security, Damian Hinds; about science, George Freeman; of pensions, Jay Opperman; technology, Chris phillip; and the courts, James CartledgeWhich hastened the decision of the Prime Minister.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and AP