After defiantly rejecting calls for his resignation, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Thursday that he would step down as leader if his party, which will eventually result in him being removed from the country’s top job.
Pressure had been mounting for him to throw in the towel after an influx of resignations from members of his cabinet. More than 40 ministers and assistants, as well as three cabinet members resigned since late Tuesday.
Addressing the nation from the front of his 10 Downing Street Office, Johnson said he agreed that it was time for his Conservative Party to have a new leader and took the opportunity to thank Britons for the “immense privilege” they had entrusted upon him.
“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of the party, and therefore a new PM. I today appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place, he continued, thanking voters for what he called an “incredible mandate”.
“The reason I have fought do hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but I felt it was my job, duty, obligation to you to continue to do what we promised,” Johnson said.
“As we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves. And my friends, in politics, no one is remotely indispensable, and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader equally committed to taking this country forward.”
In April this year, the prime minister was fined for breaking lockdown rules after he attended a birthday gathering in June 2020.