Boris Johnson has agreed to resign

Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, July 8th, 2022 - 41 comments
Categories: boris johnson, uk politics - Tags:

The Guardian reporting breaking news,

Boris Johnson is to resign on Thursday as Conservative leader but will push to stay on as prime minister until autumn after his chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, called on him to go and a string of cabinet ministers walked out.

His resignation brings to an end an extraordinary standoff after multiple cabinet ministers pressed him to resign and more than 50 ministers quit because of his mishandling of a string of scandals.

41 comments on “Boris Johnson has agreed to resign ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    8 July 2022 at 6:07 am

    Goodbye Bor-arse! UK voters should hang their heads in shame at ever allowing him to be a Mayor, let alone a Prime Minister.

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    8 July 2022 at 7:29 am

    Well Boris…is shuffling off, stage right. Maybe wonder who the tories have in mind to replace him ? They have had some real wasters…..

    On that…you would think this is Brit Labours time ? Does anyone have an opinion on Angela Rayner? She def got the mind AND wit to best the conservatives that Ive seen…..

    • Tiger Mountain 2.1
      8 July 2022 at 8:11 am

      Brexit was such a huge distraction and splitter, followed by COVID, that it is a real task from this distance to say what the poms should do. I think they are basically stuffed until there is a more proportional electoral system instituted.

      RMT leader Mick Lynch would be good!

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1.1
        8 July 2022 at 8:20 am

        Re Mick Lynch, Yea I hadnt heard of him till seen Mickey Savage thread…and since, Ive seen him and he seems very ..Measured. Doesnt get rattled..just dismantles his opponents !.

        Still..have to say I do like Angela too : )

      • Anne 2.1.2
        8 July 2022 at 10:27 am

        … they are basically stuffed until there is a more proportional electoral system instituted.

        It will never happen while a Tory government is in power. Millions of UK voters have given up on voting because they feel so disenfranchised. The last thing the Tories would want is to have them voting again.

    • Pierre 2.2
      8 July 2022 at 9:59 am

      I don't trust Rayner, she's always given the impression that she's hedging her bets with the left. She's also been notably passive when her friends (Long-Bailey, Corbyn) were driven out by the right-wing leadership.

      That said we're not lacking competent and politically solid candidates, they're just rare to find in the Parliamentary Party. If only Laura Pidcock were still an MP…

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.2.1
        8 July 2022 at 10:18 am

        Hi Pierre. Hope all good with you? And of course you are in the place to observe Brit Labour !

        I was going on Angela Rayner's speeches Ive seen….And seemed to have the measure of Raab etc.. (that might not be that hard : )

        And I looked up Laura Pidcock. Indeed ! And of course…poor Jo Cox : (

        Anyway..hope you got some Sun to enjoy the tories implosion.

        Take care.

        • Pierre 2.2.1.1
          8 July 2022 at 11:00 am

          Cheers comrade,

          I got to see Rayner address a Morning Star event, and while she spoke well (to a naturally sympathetic audience), that's where my wariness comes from.

          It is sunny here at the moment, I'm going down to Tolpuddle next weekend so fingers crossed the good weather holds!

          Likewise I hope all's well in NZ, at least your tories are out of government.

  3. weka 3
    8 July 2022 at 8:22 am

    This is superb and hilarious satire (yes it really happened – Hugh Grant tweeted long time brexit loud speaker protester outside parliament to play Benny Hill and he did).

    https://twitter.com/fritschner/status/1545077380527673344

  4. Sanctuary 4
    8 July 2022 at 8:39 am

    Strong language alert as Jonathan Pie says it all.

  5. RedLogix 5
    8 July 2022 at 9:10 am

    So I went off to see what this serial sexual predator Chris Pincher has been convicted of. After all he's been repeatedly compared to Harvey Weinstein so I was expecting a catalog of exploitative rapes going back decades. If it's going to bring a PM down it had better be significant.

    What turns up is the allegation of a handful of drunken gropes. Seems the Poms have well learned from the Assange affair just how politically effective this kind of weaponisation can be.

    • Grey Area 5.1
      8 July 2022 at 9:16 am

      Isn't the issue that Johnson lied yet again not whether the allegations were true? He lied that he didn't know about the allegations when others said he did.

      • Muttonbird 5.1.1
        8 July 2022 at 9:23 am

        Apparently lying and sexual assault is fine in some people's world. The rest is just woke nonsense.

      • RedLogix 5.1.2
        8 July 2022 at 10:06 am

        As with Assange the point was never whether the allegations were true or not – but whether they could be weaponised to bring him down.

        Strictly speaking I agree with you, but we all know it is the sexual element that turned this from an administrative faux-pas – into the omni-shambles it has become.

      • Pierre 5.1.3
        8 July 2022 at 10:13 am

        That's right, Pincher's (alleged) sexual assaults weren't the only issue. The problem was Pincher had a pattern of misconduct and instead of dealing with it Boris promoted him. When asked if he was aware of Pincher's behaviour, Boris lied and said he was not.

    • Blazer 5.2
      8 July 2022 at 9:17 am

      So ,you are disappointed to see Boris go?

      • RedLogix 5.2.1
        8 July 2022 at 9:59 am

        No, his leadership of the UK has been chaotic and destabilising. Just pointing out the shoddy means used to get rid of him.

        This whole sex business has become politically psychotic. On the one hand alphabet soup progressives demand pretty much anything goes. Any and all forms of sexual variation are embraced and empowered. Hell it seems perfectly fine to encourage young and emotionally volatile teenagers to sexually mutilate their bodies irreversibly in the name of this progressivism.

        At the same time sex is treated as being so dangerous that an ill-judged hand on a knee or groin is the end of the fucking world.

        • Anne 5.2.1.1
          8 July 2022 at 11:02 am

          Totally agree RL @ 5.2.1, but in this case I think it proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. The last of a long line of scandals and mistruths.

          In the past couple of days I have winced every time I heard one of his ministers rabbiting on about honesty, decency, integrity blah blah. Yet they were more than happy to serve under a lying, manipulative sociopath.

        • roblogic 5.2.1.2
          9 July 2022 at 2:52 am

          agree RL. it is the ideology of narcissistic horny teenagers. sex and identity formation is an important part of adolescence but seeing grown adults seemingly stuck there forever is not something to be celebrated.

          the tradition of committed monogamy is a common feature of long term stable societies. when the bonds of family fracture, a civilisation is imperilled

          https://twitter.com/m_millerman/status/1544286527311810562?s=21&t=jruufDoWpm5OgEZ0xgV87g

          • RedLogix 5.2.1.2.1
            9 July 2022 at 11:56 am

            That is an interesting view from Raj Coleman.

            And yes while monogamy entails inconvenience and sacrifice, stable family formation is the bedrock of civilisation in every dimension you consider. Progressives who imagine they can destroy the family while insisting they will deliver utopia, are usually deluding themselves for some fairly base and selfish desires.

      • Pierre 5.2.2
        8 July 2022 at 10:25 am

        The Pincher issue is genuinely grim, but putting that aside as a justification, it is reasonable to ask what is actually going on. Groups of senior ministers don't usually just all resign at once. This must have been coordinated.

        What we don't know is who coordinated it and why.

        • Incognito 5.2.2.1
          8 July 2022 at 11:03 am

          Come on, even English Tory MPs can read the tealeaves. One doesn’t need to invoke orchestration to understand that these highly connected people talk to each other and watch over their shoulder all the time. It’s mostly self-preservation.

          Few have actually resigned as MPs altogether and the last 2 by-elections in the UK triggered by, let’s say, lack of moral leadership have turned out disastrous for the Tories.

          The writing has been on the wall for a while.

    • mpledger 5.3
      8 July 2022 at 4:24 pm

      The guy's nickname was "Pincher by name, pincher by nature".

      It's not just allegations though, he admitted he was in the wrong in the latest to-do

      "Pincher said he respected the prime minister’s decision to remove the whip. “As I told the prime minister, I drank far too much on Wednesday night, embarrassing myself and others, and I am truly sorry for the upset I caused,” he said."

      And he has had at least one complaint upheld against him

      "…the BBC reported that Pincher was investigated for inappropriate behaviour with the complaint upheld when he was at the Foreign Office as a minister in 2019-20, and that the prime minister was made aware of that incident."

      And it's not coming from the opposition, it's from within

      "Coffey highlighted that Pincher was cleared by a previous investigation after Alex Story, a former professional rower and Tory candidate, accused him of making unwanted passes and acting like a “poundshop Harvey Weinstein”.

      And this is all on top of 4 other Conservative MPs being investigated for sexual misconduct. You can read about it here:

      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/03/boris-johnson-accused-of-ignoring-warnings-about-chris-pincher-amid-new-allegations

      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/04/unions-call-for-parliamentary-reform-after-seemingly-endless-misconduct-charges

    • Hanswurst 5.4
      9 July 2022 at 12:10 pm

      I imagine someone's been sitting on these allegations for a while, that the Conservatives got a heads-up from the Durham Police that Starmer was going to be exonerated, and that they decided they'd rather be shot of Johnson than have to sit behind him, ostensibly supporting him, while the opposition laid into him on integrity yet again, this time without any ammunition left with which to fire back. They've opted for short term turmoil and a reset, rather than a steady stream of soundbites that establish a possibly irreversible impression that the opposition are more energetic and competent than the government.

  6. Muttonbird 6
    8 July 2022 at 10:44 am

    Keep in mind he didn't actually resign, just said he would.

    https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1544990924572430337

    Apparently, in his 'resignation' speech outside #10 the word 'resign' was never mentioned…

  7. Treetop 7
    8 July 2022 at 3:23 pm

    Whoever gets elected as the next British PM, the first job I would assign them is to sort out the bench seating in the debating chamber. They are packed in like sardines in a tin.

    • Mike the Lefty 7.1
      9 July 2022 at 10:26 am

      It is too small to be sure. If every member attended at one time there would be many standing in the aisles. Unlike the NZ parliament the British members don't have regular seat positions, they have benches, but the members do have their preferred spots. For example there is a front bench on the government side where "rebel" MPs customarily sit and the smaller parties have their preferred spots. Times when every MP attends almost never happen because there are usually many MPs on leave and of course the Irish nationalist MPs never take their seats in the house anyway.

  8. Muttonbird 8
    8 July 2022 at 4:17 pm

  10. Mike the Lefty 10
    9 July 2022 at 8:35 am

    Boris Johnson's entire political career has been accomplished by playing the role of the lovable buffoon, and it is funny how this seems to work for some people. Donald Trump tried to play this role too and it also worked for him (for a while).

    Johnson won the last general election because his policy was BREXIT, and the Brexit supporters were far better politically organised than the remain group. A divided Labour Party opposition helped a lot too.

  11. mpledger 11
    9 July 2022 at 12:09 pm

    There was an interesting tweet – "It is somewhat ironic, is it not, that Tory MPs achieved the workplace change they needed by withdrawing their labour."

    https://twitter.com/EmmaBurnell_/status/1545291037622652928

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