Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The ministerial resignations keep on coming

Boris Johnson and Will Quince in happier times (photo: Getty)

More ministerial resignations are underway and the day has barely begun in Westminster. Will Quince, who had the humiliating job of answering questions about what Johnson knew and when on the Monday broadcast round, has quit. He’s an education minister and writes in his letter that the Prime Minister last night apologised to him for ‘the briefings I received from No. 10 ahead of Monday’s media round, which we now know to be inaccurate.’

The timing meant that Nadhim Zahawi had to spend his first interview in the job reacting to more bits falling off the government

Quince had tried to distance himself as much as possible from those briefings, telling each broadcaster that he had asked No. 10 very ‘firmly and clearly’ for assurances about what had happened. He didn’t want to suggest that he was in any way endorsing what he’d been told.

His resignation landed at around the same time as Laura Trott’s from her post as a parliamentary private secretary.

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Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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