Boris Johnson faces revolt from Conservative MPs, chaotic scenes in British news coverage

A day of political chaos in the UK has left the nation’s Prime Minister on the brink – and one news anchor red-faced.

The eruption of chaos in British politics has bled over into the nation’s news media, with memorable moments derailing multiple TV networks’ coverage in the last 24 hours.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under immense pressure to resign amid a revolt from within his own party and cabinet. For now, he remains defiant.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid set off a flurry of resignations from Mr Johnson’s government on Tuesday night, local time. The pair have since been joined by dozens of their colleagues.

Late on Wednesday night, Attorney-General Suella Braverman became the most recent senior minister to call for Mr Johnson’s removal.

“I have been a supporter of Boris’s for many years,” Ms Braverman told ITV.

“I’m incredibly sad today. There’s an overwhelming sense of despair and sadness in parliament among Conservative MPs.

“To my mind – and it pains me to say this in my heart – but I do think the time has come for the Prime Minister to step down.”

Mr Johnson does not agree.

“The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he’s been handed a colossal mandate, is to keep going. And that is what I’m going to do,” he told parliament during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

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Boris Johnson (centre), Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab (left) and the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi (right) in parliament today. Picture: Jessica Taylor/UK parliament/AFP

Removing Mr Johnson is no easy task. He survived a leadership vote a month ago, and under the Conservative Party’s current rules he cannot be challenged again until next year.

The 1922 Committee, which controls those rules, will consider whether to change them and allow a fresh confidence vote next week.

The Prime Minister’s capacity to survive potentially career-ending scandals – such as when he was fined for breaching his own Covid restrictions – led one Conservative MP to remark that he was “like a cockroach in a nuclear apocalypse” overnight.

This latest scandal involves Mr Johnson’s decision to promote one of his MPs, Chris Pincher, to the post of deputy chief whip, despite knowing that he was facing groping allegations.

The Prime Minister had been told about the allegations back in 2019, and was even said to have quipped, “Pincher by name, pincher by nature,” but still handed him the plum job.

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

“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.”

Chaotic scenes in British media

The scale of the chaos in Mr Johnson’s government was illustrated succinctly during his testimony before parliament’s Liaison Committee on Wednesday.

As the committee asked him about various public policy matters, Sky News UK framed its live feed with a tally showing the number of government members who had resigned.

That number kept rising while Mr Johnson was speaking, starting in the twenties and ending up in the thirties. At the time of writing, a total of 44 people had quit.

At one point during the hearing a member of the committee, Huw Merriman, published a letter calling for Mr Johnson to resign while he was sitting metres away from the Prime Minister, waiting to ask him questions.

lol sky news has a running tally of resignations during boris johnson's hearing and it keeps ticking up while he's talking pic.twitter.com/aFGK9YWfVi

— Jack Mirkinson (@jackmirkinson) July 6, 2022

Huw Merriman tweeted this letter while in the room with the PM, just before asking Qs.

How humiliating for Boris Johnson. https://t.co/Whyitx6F30

— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) July 6, 2022

Fellow Conservative committee members William Wragg and Bernard Jenkin repeatedly asked Mr Johnson to rule out the idea of calling an early election, should he lose the confidence of his party. After much prevarication, he did so.

“I am not going to step down, and the last thing this country needs is an election,” he said.

There was a lighter moment on the BBC, meanwhile, as veteran anchor Tim Willcox was caught on camera lounging with his feet on the desk, scrolling on his phone.

Reporter Ros Atkins was in the process of recapping the day’s events in a live cross from Downing Street when the network’s feed cut back to the studio.

Willcox quickly realised he was on camera, removed his feet from the desk, and assumed a more dignified position.

The BBC gave viewers another laugh – on purpose, this time – at the end of its Newsnight program, showing a list of government resignations set to a particularly sad rendition of the song Bittersweet Symphony.

The list ended with the name “Boris Johnson”, followed by a question mark.

INCREDIBLE SCENES:

BBC News accidentally cut away to their news studio, showing a presenter with their feet on the desk. pic.twitter.com/FVvxaXTQUt

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) July 6, 2022

Six seconds of comic relief in the business news day for ages pic.twitter.com/F1oPLZSNqc

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) July 6, 2022

In case you missed it, #Newsnight replaced its end credits tonight with a list of all the ministerial resignations so far set to an acoustic version of Bittersweet Symphony pic.twitter.com/VPztjMc6OE

— Tom Hourigan (@TomHourigan) July 6, 2022

‘Rude little man’: Johnson’s ally roasted

Conservative MP James Duddridge, who currently serves as Mr Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, was interviewed by TalkTV’s political editor Kate McCann on Wednesday evening – while the ever outspoken Piers Morgan was anchoring the network’s coverage.

“Ask him, does he think he’s now Britain’s ‘Comical Ali,’” Morgan muttered to McCann during the interview.

“Comical Ali” was a pejorative nickname for Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, the chief propagandist for Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq when the United States and its allies invaded in 2003.

Mr Duddridge, who could hear Morgan in his earpiece, took umbrage at the comparison.

“The only person who’s comical is him,” the MP said.

“I love Kate, I will answer to Kate, but I’m not going to answer to you. I think it’s very, very bad TV.”

“Really? Well OK, let me tell you what I think of you, you impertinent little twerp,” Morgan shot back at him.

“I think you’re very bad TV. You’re the Comical Ali of British politics, and everyone is laughing at you.”

Mr Duddridge promptly removed his earpiece and ended the interview, so he could not hear as Morgan proceeded to label him a “rude little man”. Very British, as insults go.

Still chuckling… 🤣 pic.twitter.com/CK8uonyAzP

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 6, 2022

Senior minister sacked after confronting PM

Earlier in the day, senior government minister Michael Gove visited Mr Johnson in Downing Street and advised the Prime Minister that his position was untenable.

Mr Johnson responded by sacking him.

Mr Gove famously stabbed Mr Johnson in the back following the Brexit referendum in 2016, torpedoing his campaign to become prime minister by launching his own unsuccessful bid for the top job.

Theresa May subsequently became prime minister. Mr Johnson replaced her in 2019.

As months and years passed, Mr Johnson and Mr Gove set their differences aside and became close allies in government.

But recognising that the writing was on the wall for the Prime Minister, Mr Gove told Mr Johnson that it was time for him to quit.

A few hours later, a delegation of other senior ministers – chief among them Home Secretary Priti Patel – also visited Downing St and urged Mr Johnson to resign.

No one from that meeting was fired, but Mr Johnson still refused to budge.

“He wants to stay and fight,” a source from the Prime Minister’s office told The Guardian.

“The choice is a summer of navel-gazing and instability or a new partnership that finally moves forward.

“It’s not quite as Doomsday as people were thinking a few hours ago.”