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Boris Johnson’s final hours as Prime Minister have been undignified. We do not yet know quite how this will end, but we know he will eventually have to quit. There is a delegation of cabinet ministers in Downing Street waiting for him – more here. Johnson found out about this group while he was in
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As several cabinet ministers have resigned, is it hours, days, weeks or months before Boris Johnson is kicked out? James Forsyth joins Katy Balls from the roof of Parliament.
Has Nadhim Zahawi turned on Boris Johnson, just 24 hours after he was promoted to Chancellor? That’s the question all of Westminster is asking tonight amid reports for lobby journalists that Johnson will shortly meet with a delegation of senior cabinet ministers. It’s said to involve the Chancellor and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, following a
Boris Johnson is now facing a situation where if he doesn’t resign he will face more cabinet resignations. Johnson is currently in front of the liaison committee, but when he returns to his office he will have a delegation of cabinet ministers waiting to see him who will him he is done and that he
So it ends as it was always likely to end: as a disgrace inside a shambles, lost in a fog of delusion. Boris Johnson’s fate was sealed the moment he became Prime Minister. As was apparent to those who cared to look, nothing in his past suggested he would have the chops to be a
Knife crime beset PMQs. It was a horrific blue-on-blue bloodbath as Tory backstabbers queued up to play the role of Brutus and hack Caesar to death. David Davis shoved in his stiletto and claimed that the PM’s lack of integrity would ‘paralyse proper government.’ Mind you, he said that six months ago. ‘I thank him very
In the past couple of minutes, five ministers have resigned as a co-ordinated group and Michael Gove is reported to have told Boris Johnson in private that it’s time to go. Kemi Badenoch, Lee Rowley, Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien and Julia Lopez have quit in a joint letter in which they call for Boris Johnson to
However badly Boris Johnson’s career ends, it will surely be a better finale than that of his great-grandfather, the Turkish journalist, editor and liberal politician Ali Kemal. Almost exactly a century ago, following the trauma of defeat and the end of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal was attacked by a mob of soldiers, hanged from a
Sajid Javid’s resignation in the Commons just now was coldly brutal. He’s had some practice, which he acknowledged, given this is the second time he has resigned in protest from Boris Johnson’s government. The first personal statement he gave was critical, but this one was terminal. He said ‘treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity
At one point in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the Speaker called MPs to order and told them: ‘We’ve got to get through Prime Minister’s Questions.’ This was an instruction to backbenchers who were shouting at one another across the chamber. But it sounded like an ambitious goal for Boris Johnson. He barely got through the
Mr Speaker, I’m grateful for your permission to make this statement. Yesterday we began our day together. You, I, my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister, and colleagues from across this House, broke bread together at the parliamentary prayer breakfast and listened to the words of Reverend Les Issac, who spoke about the responsibility that
Boris Johnson has been given so many second chances. He hasn’t taken any of them. Let’s start with his voting for Theresa May’s terrible Brexit deal. Despite this, when Theresa May resigned he was backed by Leavers and became PM. Having become PM he didn’t, as he should have done, back a no deal, and
Late last night, Boris Johnson appeared to have stabilised the situation, albeit temporarily. He had managed to appoint a new Chancellor and Health Secretary and no other cabinet ministers had followed Sunak and Javid out the door. But this morning, his situation has rapidly deteriorated. Resignations from the junior ranks started up again, previously loyal
This is an edited transcript of the interview with the new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi on the Today programme this morning. Nick Robinson: You faced a choice yesterday, and I’d like you to explain it to our listeners. Why was it in the country’s interests as against yours, for you to stay in the cabinet and not to follow
In the blizzard of letters by Tory MPs who want Boris Johnson to go, one stands out. Chris Skidmore has called for the rules of the 1922 Committee to be changed so that another vote of no confidence. His argument is particularly forceful: ‘This is an extremely grave situation, that is tantamount to an effective cover-up
The 1922 Committee – the organising body for Conservative MPs – faces a momentous decision on Wednesday night. If its members believe the mood of their colleagues is that the Prime Minister must face an immediate further test of his popularity, following the Chris Pincher debacle and the serial resignations from government, they could allow
Just after 6 p.m. yesterday it seemed like the Boris Johnson regime was in total, house of cards style collapse. Sajid Javid resigned as Health Secretary during a televised act of contrition by the PM over his handling – if that’s not too indelicate a word – of the Chris Pincher affair. Five minutes later
The eco-mob is at it again. Members of the protest group Just Stop Oil have progressed from blocking fuel terminals to disrupting the British Grand Prix and gluing themselves to the frames of paintings in galleries and museums across the country. To which anyone with even the vaguest recollection of the traffic-stopping stunts of Insulate
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 big winner from yesterday’s drama was Nadhim Zahawi. Just ten months ago he was a junior minister: now he holds the second most powerful position in government. The newly-appointed Chancellor has today done his first round of interviews, appearing across a range of outlets to outline his plans for the Treasury. As Kate Andrews
As the cameras burped and clicked, as an aggravated nation watched, Boris Johnson announced that he was giving up. ‘Let us seize this chance and make this our moment to stand tall in the world,’ he said. ‘That is the agenda of the next Prime Minister of this country. Well, I must tell you, my
You have to wonder how much longer Boris Johnson can cling on. Sooner or later, he has to run out of ministers, right? Actually, I’m reminded of Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam who, unwilling to wait for Labor members to elect his cabinet after victory in the 1972 election, appointed himself and deputy Lance Barnard
Resignations! Accusations! Recriminations! It’s all kicking off in the Tory party at present. One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity – and no man knows that better than Nadhim Zahawi, the newly-appointed Chancellor now sporting the biggest grin in Westminster. Not all Conservative MPs though are happy at seeing their colleagues rise. News that Michelle Donelan
We will never know the counterfactuals of the past few years. What if another MP had been made Chancellor when Sajid Javid resigned (the first time)? What if a green chancellor Rishi Sunak hadn’t had a pandemic to manage? While we can’t answer these questions, it’s hard to imagine any MP – certainly on the
Just over three hours after Rishi Sunak resigned as Chancellor, Boris Johnson appointed his successor. Downing Street confirmed on Tuesday evening that Nadhim Zahawi will take on the role – leaving his job as Education Secretary to enter No. 11. It comes after Zahawi spent over an hour in Downing Street following speculation he could
Steve Barclay is the new Health Secretary. This is a fascinating move for both political and policy reasons. The first is that it is an admission by the Prime Minister that his current Downing Street operation is not working: Barclay was the chief of staff brought in to ‘get a grip’, and there has manifestly
One by one, cabinet ministers are confirming that they are not resigning this evening, leaving a very small group of ministers who have said nothing. One of the most conspicuous silences comes from Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary. He has been mooted as a potential leadership contender, and has refused to rule out a bid.
Rishi Sunak’s resignation was, without question, a brave, honourable and dignified decision. By stepping away from the cabinet, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak may well have done enough to salvage his reputation among Conservative MPs and party members. Perhaps he might even have rescued what was once seen as a potentially meteoric career. But although he may
MPs and aides in Westminster are on tenterhooks this evening as to whether more ministers will follow in the footsteps of Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak and resign. Yet while some ministers are for now maintaining a vow of silence when it comes to their plans (most notably Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi), others have come
You know it’s bad when the Old Etonians are turning on you. After the Cabinet departures of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid and, er, whatever the hell Andrew Murrison was trying to do with his blurry letter of resignation, Bim Afolami has become the fourth Tory MP to quit the official payroll tonight. Afolami opted
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Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid have resigned from government. In letters to the Prime Minister this evening, Sunak said the government ‘cannot continue like this’, while Javid told the PM that ‘the situation will not change under your leadership.’ Will more ministers now resign? And is this the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership? Isabel Hardman
Shortly after he received the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson addressed around 70 Tory MPs who are still sort-of loyal to him. I’m told by one loyal colleague – who sounded rather bewildered by the whole thing – that Johnson was ‘remarkably bullish’, claiming he is going to appoint a new
So it has started. The joint resignation of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid marks a cabinet coup against Boris Johnson, seeking to remove him without the need for a parliamentary revolt. ‘This will be a cabinet thing, not a party thing,’ one minister told me earlier: ‘Someone will have to resign, then others will be