LONDON: Boris Johnson announced his resignation as British Prime Minister on Thursday (Jul 7), bringing an end to a turbulent three years in office and triggering a search for a new leader.
“The process of choosing that new leader should begin now,” Johnson said at the door of Number 10 Downing Street.
“Today I have appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.
“My friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable … I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world.”
Multiple media outlets had earlier reported Johnson’s impending resignation, after he was abandoned by ministers and his Conservative Party’s lawmakers who said he was no longer fit to govern.
“His resignation was inevitable,” Justin Tomlinson, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, said on Twitter. “As a party we must quickly unite and focus on what matters. These are serious times on many fronts.”
The Conservatives will now have to elect a new leader, a process which could take weeks or months. It was not clear whether Johnson would or could stay on in a caretaker role while the person who would be the new prime minister was chosen.
Many said he should leave immediately and hand over to his deputy, Dominic Raab.
“As well as resigning as party leader the PM must resign his office,” Conservative parliamentary deputy Nick Gibb said. “After losing so many ministers, he has lost the trust and authority required to continue.”
The crisis comes as Britons are facing some of the tightest squeeze on finances in decades, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with soaring inflation, and the economy forecast to be the weakest among major nations in 2023 apart from Russia.
It also follows years of internal division sparked by the narrow 2016 vote to leave the European Union, and threats to the make-up of the United Kingdom itself with demands for another Scottish independence referendum, the second in a decade.
For all the latest world News Click Here
