British PM Boris Johnson vows to stay in office after top ministers quit

A defiant British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday was battling to stay in power after his government was rocked by the resignation of two top ministers, who said they could no longer serve under his scandal-tarred leadership.

The British PM’s first challenge is getting through Wednesday, where he faces tough questions at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament, and a long-scheduled grilling by a committee of senior lawmakers.

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Months of discontent over Johnson’s judgement and ethics within the governing Conservative Party erupted with the resignations of Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening.

In a scathing resignation letter, Sunak said “the public rightly expect the government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. … I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

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Javid said the party needed “humility, grip and a new direction” but “it is clear this situation will not change under your leadership.”

Johnson quickly replaced the two ministers, promoting Nadhim Zahawi from the education department to the Treasury and installing his chief of staff, Steve Barclay, as health secretary.

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But a string of resignations late on Tuesday from more junior ministers — from both the liberal and right-wing branches of the Conservative Party — showed that danger to Johnson was far from over.

Recently, the British PM has been fined by police and slammed by an investigator’s report over lockdown-breaching parties in government during the pandemic; survived a no-confidence vote by his party in which 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to oust him; and has seen formerly loyal lieutenants urge him to resign.

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Through it all, he has vowed to carry on governing — even suggesting he wanted to stay in office until the 2030s.

The final straw for Sunak and Javid was the prime minister’s shifting explanations about his handling of a sexual misconduct scandal.

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The latest scandal began last week when lawmaker Chris Pincher resigned as Conservative deputy chief whip amid complaints that he groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations levelled against Pincher and questions about why Johnson promoted him to a senior job enforcing party discipline.