British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday refused to quit, despite a slew of resignations from his government, piling on pressure as he faced a grilling from members of parliament.
The 58-year-old leader promised to “deliver” on his “mandate,” but his grip on power appeared to be slipping following 10 minutes on Tuesday night, when Rishi Sunak resigned as chancellor of the exchequer and Sajid Javid quit as secretary of state for health.
Both said that they could no longer tolerate the “culture of scandal” surrounding Johnson.
Photo: AP
At the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament, members from all sides rounded on Johnson.
However, brushing off calls to resign, he said: “Frankly, the job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when you have been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Johnson has faced an exodus of ministers in just 24 hours and later faced an hours-long grilling from the chairs of the House of Commons’ most powerful committees, including some of his most virulent critics in the Conservative Party’s ranks.
Sunak’s and Javid’s departures came just minutes after Johnson apologized for appointing Chris Pincher, a senior Conservative, who quit his post last week after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men.
Former British secretary of state for education Nadhim Zahawi was handed the finance brief.
“You don’t go into this job to have an easy life,” Zahawi told Sky News.
Will Quince quit early yesterday as minister for children and families, saying that he was given inaccurate information about Pincher before having to defend the government in a round of media interviews on Monday.
That triggered a new wave of more than a dozen resignations.
The Pincher affair was the “icing on the cake” for Sunak and Javid, Conservative Member of Parliament Andrew Bridgen told Sky News.
“I and a lot of the party now are determined that he will be gone by the summer recess [starting on July 22]. The sooner the better,” Bridgen said.
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