July 7th, 2022.
I started work this morning, went to get a coffee and when I came back at 9 am Boris Johnson had gone! Or had he?
It was reported that he was to resign today but (and there’s always a but where Johnson is concerned) “to ensure stability he would stay on as prime minister until such time as the Conservatives could complete the selection process for a new leader”. He suggested October would be good as that would allow for the summer recess in the Houses of Parliament and coincide with the Conservative party’s annual conference.
That has gone down like a bucket of cold sick and there is huge pressure for him to leave now, except that he can’t be made to leave. The short-term solution is for the 1922 committee elections to take place as scheduled on Monday and then have a no-confidence vote. All of which is damaging for the Conservative party and the country.
As dawn broke it transpired that more resignations from junior ministers and Parliamentary Private Secretaries were coming in. By 8.30 apparently this figure had reached 58. Johnson couldn’t get replacements appointed quickly and as a result governing became difficult as there were no ministers available to guide legislation through committee stages. The country was already being paralysed and the process of government halted so Johnson had to resign.
Johnson is rumoured to have threatened to call a general election, which on current polls with Labour in the lead, would result in many MPs losing their seats. This threat faded as his opponents researched the Lascelles principles. This in effect stated that the Queen did not have to agree to a dissolution of Parliament if there was a credible alternative person who could command the respect of Parliament. It is not known if this drip-feed of resignations was part of a co-ordinated plot or just the natural gathering of momentum.
Johnson finally appeared before the cameras outside Downing Street at 12-30 and explained his reasons for resigning, which apparently were everyone else’s fault. He had been betrayed by traitors when he had a huge personal mandate to govern the country. (Latest polls show 60%+ want him out). This is patently untrue as the UK has a parliamentary system with people voting for their constituency MP and then they vote for their leader. The UK is not yet a presidency. He continued in a characteristically ungracious manner, ignoring completely the real reason for his ejection. Serial mendacity, loss of integrity, deviousness and lack of trust were the final driving forces behind his ousting.
The only problem now is that without bucket loads of garlic and wooden stakes being deployed I cannot see him being removed from Downing Street. He is buying time and as usual hopes that something will turn up. It is now a race to get the new 1922 committee in place (without Johnson influencing the candidates) and sanctioning a new confidence vote.
The candidates for the position are now being announced and it looks as though there will be about 10 throwing their hats into the ring.
Finally, it emerged at the liaison committee meeting that Alexander Lebedev, an ex-KGB officer had meetings with Johnson in 2018 without an official present. Lebedev’s son Evgeny was granted a peerage by Johnson in 2020. Evgeny Lebedev owns the Evening Standard newspaper in London. It is rumoured that more revelations will be drip-fed to the media over the next few weeks.
I am ordering in huge amounts of popcorn as this will run and run as Johnson tries to wriggle out of his resignation and the country slips into chaos.