The state of American politics is a hellscape these days, with a major political party committed to misogyny, transphobia, racism, hate, death-cultism, fascism, violent insurrection and guns. So it’s actually a relief to watch British people deal with a somewhat quaint and straight-forward political crisis involving their prime minister, the terrible lunatic Boris Johnson. The BoJo mess is a palate cleanser for this American. BoJo has been awful for years/decades, but several scandals and controversies have all come to a head in recent months, and people on every side of the political spectrum seem properly outraged. So much so that Boris’s cabinet ministers and Tory allies are cutting and running from the disaster that is BoJo. This week, it’s a question of whether the Tories will force him out or whether BoJo will cling to power by his fingernails.
A defiant British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was battling to stay in power on Wednesday after his government was rocked by the resignation of two top ministers, who said they could no longer serve under his scandal-tarred leadership. His first challenge is getting through Wednesday, where he faces tough questions at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament, and a long-scheduled grilling by a committee of senior lawmakers.
Months of discontent over Johnson’s judgment and ethics within the governing Conservative Party erupted with the resignations of Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening. In a scathing resignation letter, Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. … I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”
Javid said the party needed “humility, grip and a new direction” but “it is clear this situation will not change under your leadership.”
Johnson quickly replaced the two ministers, promoting Nadhim Zahawi from the education department to the Treasury and installing his chief of staff, Steve Barclay, as health secretary.
But a string of resignations late Tuesday from more junior ministers — from both the liberal and right-wing branches of the Conservative Party — showed that danger to Johnson was far from over.
In the past few months, Johnson has been fined by police and slammed by an investigator’s report over lockdown-breaching parties in government during the pandemic; survived a no-confidence vote by his party in which 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to oust him; and has seen formerly loyal lieutenants urge him to resign. Through it all, he has vowed to carry on governing — even suggesting he wanted to stay in office until the 2030s.
[From NBC News]
ABC News did a timeline of crises which have “rocked” the Johnson government. There’s talk about the Queen needing to return to London/Windsor from her vacation in Sandringham, just so she can accept Boris’s eventual (?) resignation. What’s also notable is some of Johnson’s most vocal supporters within his Cabinet are the ones resigning. Oh, and the BBC is asking “how might Boris be ousted?” I’ve seen some stuff which would suggest that the Murdoch press machine in the UK has begun to turn on him too, which would likely be the final nail in Boris’s political career. When Rupert Murdoch says a prime minister is done, he’s done.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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