Boris Johnson resigns as UK Prime Minister

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned. His government utterly imploded after mass resignations.

Boris Johnson has confirmed he is resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The embattled Conservative leader finally called it quits after a series of scandals plagued his premiership, from illegal parties to handing a plum job to a colleague he knew was under investigation for sexual misconduct.

Mr Johnson formally announced his resignation at 12.30pm on Thursday (9.30pm AEST).

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new Prime Minister,” he said outside 10 Downing Street.

Mr Johnson said he had appointed a new Cabinet and would serve until a new leader was in place.

He touted his administration’s achievements, including overseeing Brexit, steering the country through the Covid pandemic and supporting Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street on July 7, 2022. Picture: Getty Images

“To you, the British public, I know there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few will be disappointed,” he said.

“I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.”

A small group of Mr Johnson’s supporters cheered loudly as he walked to the podium.

There were audible boos from the crowds gathered nearby during his speech.

Big mistake that brought down PM

The flurry of resignations was ignited by the news that Mr Johnson had accepted responsibility for promoting Chris Pincher to the post of deputy chief whip, despite knowing he was facing groping allegations.

The PM had been told about the claims back in 2019 — and was even said to have remarked “Pincher by name, pincher by nature” — but still handed him the key job.

“I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do,” Mr Johnson said.

“I apologise to everybody who has been badly affected by it. I want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this Government for anybody who is predatory or who abuses their position of power.”

The Prime Minister’s televised apology was not enough, with Mr Javid and Mr Sunak delivering their resignation letters as the interview went to air.

Mr Javid publicly called into question Mr Johnson’s competence, while Mr Sunak — who has long held leadership ambitions — suggested the government was not being run “properly, competently and seriously”.

Then followed a succession of junior ministers quitting, with one even declaring he had lost confidence in the PM on live TV.

Mr Johnson battled on, naming a new Chancellor and Health Secretary late on Tuesday night, but the writing was on the wall.

Rishi Sunak’s resignation as Chancellor triggered Mr Johnson’s downfall. Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP

Prime Minister’s Questions descended into farce on Wednesday as he vowed to “keep going” in the job, bringing a chorus of laughter from the Opposition, as well as from some on his own benches.

But in the end his government utterly imploded with 55 resignations and junior ministers refusing to fill the vacant jobs

Boris calls The Queen

This morning he gave The Queen a “courtesy call” to let her know of his intention to quit. He does not need to go to the Palace until he actually steps down.

A leadership contest will now take place among Conservative MPs to decide who will take over as PM.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned. Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

UK media earlier reported Mr Johnson intends to stay on as a caretaker until October, at which point he will conduct an “orderly handover”.

But some Tory MPs say they want him gone sooner, and that Deputy PM Dominic Raab should take over until a new Conservative leader is chosen.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer told the BBC that Mr Johnson “needs to go, he can’t cling on in this way”.

“His own party have finally concluded that he’s unfit to be Prime Minister – they can’t now inflict him on the country for the next few months,” he said.

Mr Starmer said if the Conservatives don’t get rid of Mr Johnson, “Labour will step up and bring a vote of no confidence because we can’t go on with the Prime Minister clinging on for months and months to come”.

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, also slammed the idea of Mr Johnson staying on.

“There will be a widespread sense of relief that the chaos of the last few days (indeed months) will come to an end, though notion of Boris Johnson staying on as PM until autumn seems far from ideal, and surely not sustainable?” she wrote on Twitter.

Avalanche of resignations

The death knell for Mr Johnson sounded on Tuesday night as his right-hand man Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, quit — mere minutes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid also handed in his resignation.

Their bombshell letters triggered an avalanche of resignations from other ministers, leaving Mr Johnson — who was branded a “greased piglet” for his ability to slip out of any difficult situation — with little option other than to go.

The final straw came on Thursday morning when Nadhim Zahawi, Mr Sunak’s replacement as Chancellor, also withdrew his support, calling on the PM to step down.

It came after seven ministers quit before breakfast, meaning the overall number of resignations topped 50.

“Prime Minister: this is not sustainable and it will only get worse: for you, for the Conservative Party and most importantly of all the country. You must do the right thing and go now,” he wrote.

Will Walden, a former Johnson spokesman, described the situation as a “total farce”, and said his sacking of senior government minister Michael Gove on Wednesday for telling the PM to resign was “pathetic”.

“What a farce,” Mr Walden told Sky News UK.

“To be dragged kicking and screaming, like he is, is an embarrassment. It’s self-inflicted. He’s made missteps all along, and ultimately it’s cost him.”

Mr Walden said his former boss would be remembered as a Prime Minister who “fundamentally didn’t listen”.

Scandal-plagued PM

The latest scandal to befall Mr Johnson was just another in a long list of difficulties that he has overcome since his landslide election victory in 2019.

He became the first Prime Minister to have been found to have committed a crime while in office earlier this year as he was fined for attending a party in Downing Street during lockdown.

He repeatedly insisted he had not attended any such gatherings, but was found by the Metropolitan Police to have been present at a surprise birthday party thrown in his honour by wife Carrie.

Carrie Johnson and her daughter outside 10 Downing Street as Boris Johnson announces his resignation Picture: Getty Images

Photos later emerged of Mr Johnson holding a glass of bubbly during another raucous party, while the rules — set by the PM himself — only allowed two people from different households to meet indoors.

While he didn’t attend every party held in Downing Street during lockdown, Mr Johnson ultimately accepted responsibility for all of them — and was forced to apologise to cleaners who were abused by partygoers and were made to clean up their vomit after a reveller got so drunk they were sick.

Voters, enraged by the PM’s antics, ditched the Conservatives in two key by-elections last month in large numbers, leading to Mr Johnson’s own MPs tabling a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

The Prime Minister won the vote 211-148, but the damage was well and truly done.

Aside from Partygate, Mr Johnson was also recently accused of offering his wife Carrie — then his lover — a plum job in the Foreign Office on a significant salary while he was Foreign Secretary.

These followed accusations of sleaze, an intriguing relationship with a US tech entrepreneur while he was Mayor of London, and questions over who coughed up the cash to decorate his Downing Street flat in garish wallpaper.

Boris Johnson and wife Carrie. Picture: Sean Gallup/Pool/Getty Images

Who will be the next PM?

Despite Boris quitting, there will not be a general election.

The Conservative Party will now hold a vote to nominate a new leader, which could take several weeks.

The new leader of the party will then meet the Queen to be appointed Prime Minister.

It remains to be seen who will run, but some MPs have made it clear they will thrown their hats into the ring.

Outgoing Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made no secret of his leadership ambitions and is likely to make a run for the top job, but his lack of experience in the Cabinet (he only became Chancellor in 2020) could be his downfall.

Revelations earlier this year that his billionaire heiress wife Akshata Murthy had avoided up to £20 million ($35 million) in tax did him no favours with the public either.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is popular among Conservative Party members, but her performance on the world stage has been somewhat lacking, leading her to be mocked by Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab filled in as PM when Mr Johnson was fighting for life in hospital with Covid. He is seen as a safe pair of hands, but some members feel he lacks the charisma to lead the party to an election victory.

No-nonsense Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has impressed with his handling of the Ukraine crisis and has deliberately steered clear of getting involved in the latest furore, branding the storm as “parlour games”.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ran in the last leadership election in 2019 and appeared to suggest he was keen for another tilt recently, although he has little sway over the more right-leaning faction of the party.

Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt has remained conspicuously quiet in recent days, leading her odds of becoming next leader to dramatically shorten as bookies predict she could be considering a run.

— with The Sun