A quick YouGov poll conducted on Tuesday found that 69% of Britons surveyed want Johnson to resign. A survey of 3,009 adults found that only 18% want them to stay.
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LONDON – The leadership of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, is pending a thread after the resignations of two of its most prominent ministers and several other high-ranking officials and ministerial aides in the last 24 hours.
British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak resigned on Tuesday evening, saying the government should be addressed “properly, competently and seriously”. Health Secretary Sajid Javid also resigned in protest against Johnson’s leadership, which has been plagued by controversy and scandal in recent months.
When several Conservatives called for Johnson’s resignation, former government Brexit negotiator David Frost also joined the fight, calling on the prime minister to resign without delay. In a newspaper column on Wednesday, Frost echoed other Johnson critics by emphatically stating that “it’s time to leave,” adding that “if you hold on, you risk taking the party.” and the government with him. “
Despite calls for resignation, the prime minister shows no sign of being willing to resign. Last night, he reorganized his ministerial team to fill the vacancies created by the shock resignations.
Several ministers defended Johnson, expressing his loyalty to him. Leading figures remaining in the cabinet include Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Foreign Minister Liz Truss and Interior Minister Priti Patel.
The probabilities of early elections
For now, the loyalty of prime ministers diminishes the immediate prospect of an early election in Britain. For that to happen, Johnson would have to resign or face another vote of confidence. Because it faced such a vote only last month, a new challenge would require a rule change to allow for another vote in the next 12 months.
“Current party rules stipulate that Johnson cannot face another vote of censure until next summer. But the main risk now is that those rules will be changed to force another vote, or that Johnson will be pressured. for him to resign voluntarily, ”Allan Monks, a JPMorgan economist, said in a note Tuesday night.
“Events could move forward very quickly, with a Conservative leadership contest that could launch a new prime minister in the next two months or so, ahead of the party’s annual conference in early October.”
Market response
The pound fell on Tuesday to a new low in March 2020 as political instability in the UK occurred. The reaction of the markets in the coming days will be followed closely.
“There is paralysis and there is a lot of uncertainty about how exactly it will develop,” Ben Emons, CEO of Medley Global Advisors ’Global Macro Strategy, told CNBC on Wednesday.
“The way the markets responded, a bit negatively, as the yields on the euro and the UK gold fell, but then they recovered and I think that indicates that, no matter how much uncertainty there is around of the cabinet and Johnson ‘s position, it has not collapsed, it still has the support, “he said.
“We’re not going to see any early elections, they have to pick a new leader for that to happen, so I think the markets are comforted. [the fact that] we will enter a period of uncertainty, but this uncertainty reflects the status quo, nothing will change in the economy or with politics, ”he told CNBC’s“ Squawk Box Europe ”.
Chair of scandals
The latest political upheaval that has affected the UK comes after a series of controversies, ranging from the “partygate” scandal with Johnson and many other government officials who were found to have breached the blocking rules. from the pandemic, to outrageous allegations, the latest of which involves Chris Pincher. , the deputy leader of the Conservative Party, responsible for maintaining party discipline.
Pincher resigned and was suspended as a Conservative Party MP last week, following allegations that he drunk two men at a private club. Since then, it has emerged that Johnson appointed him to this position despite learning of previous allegations of misconduct against him.
Johnson apologized for appointing Pincher as deputy director, but it was too late and the high-profile resignations came just minutes later.
Johnson has survived a number of challenges to his leadership in recent months, as well as calls for his resignation, especially after a strong vote of confidence and the loss of two key by-elections by the Conservative Party in the last month as the faith of the British public in its leader wears out.
A quick YouGov poll conducted on Tuesday found that 69% of Britons surveyed want Johnson to resign. A survey of 3,009 adults found that only 18% want them to stay.
Among conservative voters surveyed, 54% said they wanted to see Johnson leave, while 33% want him to stay, which shows that Johnson has become an unpopular figure for many voters initially attracted to his leadership on 2019, when he won a big 80. – majority of seats in his election candidacy to “get Brexit.”
The leader of the British opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, tweeted on Tuesday that “the Tory party is corrupt and changing a man will not solve it. Only a real change of government can give Britain the new start it needs” .
Nadhim Zahawi, the new British finance minister, told Sky News on Wednesday that he supported the prime minister and said “the team in government today is the team that will do it”, but Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats of the opposition, he told CNBC that “it is clearly in the national interest for Boris Johnson to go” and that Johnson had proven to be misleading in the past.
“Having someone as a British Prime Minister who clearly does not tell the truth and who lies on an industrial scale is detrimental to our democracy, it is damaging the UK’s reputation around the world and it is detrimental to our investment … We need a government that knows what it is doing. “
Johnson has been accused of lying on several occasions during his time in office, although he has invariably denied having done so, and has denied that Parliament has cheated on the “partygate” scandal, on which there is a ongoing research.