BoJo’s house of cards collapses

CHENNAI: Boris Johnson, the embattled British Prime Minister finally agreed to step down as the Conservative Party leader on Thursday. His announcement ended an unprecedented political crisis and has triggered an election for a Tory leader who will take on the role of the new premier. A torrent of resignations beginning in June, which continued into this week, left Johnson’s government tottering and on the verge of disintegration.

What began with a trickle, the resignation of Health Minister Sajid Javid, had become a veritable flood with other Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, Undersecretaries, trade envoys following suit, leading to as many as 58 ministers and lawmakers tendering their resignations. The list included Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer who, until recently, was spoken of as a possible prime ministerial candidate until questions were raised about the appropriateness of his Indian wife’s non-domiciled tax status.

On Wednesday, Johnson had sacked one of his senior most colleagues, Michael Gove, one of the first Cabinet Ministers who told him that it is better if he left. Gove’s sacking may have been conducted to send a message and pre-empt another resignation, but there were many others in his Cabinet who wanted Johnson to go.

Johnson’s problems didn’t stop with the resignations. They were compounded by the fact that many senior Cabinet Ministers who remained in their places wanted him out. The sentiment is that he has mismanaged the country, which has hobbled from one crisis to another, and been less than truthful about many issues, including the Partygate scandal. The most recent involved the appointment of a deputy chief whip Thomas Pincher, despite knowing he had a previous record or unruly behaviour.

Any other PM would have thrown in the towel sooner, but Johnson kept hanging on in the face of increasing adversities. His defence for staying on is familiar. Only last month, he won a vote of confidence in his leadership of the Conservatives. And, after all, wasn’t he the person who led the party to the biggest electoral victory since 1987? Such arguments have a familiar ring. When members of her party turned against Margaret Thatcher in 1990, the former PM fought to stay on, drawing attention to the fact she led the Conservatives to three successive electoral victories, the only one to do so in more than 150 years.

Thatcher eventually quit when most members of her Cabinet felt she should step down. The situation is not very different in Johnson’s case. What he was probably banking on was to ride out the crisis, which his advisers believed would abate soon. His spin doctors had hinted at a larger ministerial reshuffle, aimed at bringing doubting MPs on to his side. But there were other moves afoot which scotched his plans of using patronage as a handle to remain in power. Among them, were moves to amend rules to force him to face another vote of confidence for the party’s leadership.

So far the only Tory MP to formally declare her leadership bid is Goan-origin UK Attorney General Suella Braverman. Others being viewed as contenders include Home Secretary Priti Patel, ex-Chancellor Sunak, former Health Minister Javid, newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi (of Iraqi-origin) and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. It will be interesting to see if the Tories vote in favour of diversity considering the number of Ministers hailing from ethnically diverse backgrounds being eyed as replacements. Johnson will stay in charge at 10 Downing Street until the election of a new leader is formalised at the Conservative Party conference in October. But there is no escaping the feeling that the image of his government has taken the most severe beating, and a fierce leadership struggle seems imminent in the days to come.