In a large state hall in the heart of Downing Street, as they waited to deliver their fateful verdict on Boris Johnson, a group of cabinet ministers were forced to mingle uncomfortably with the prime minister’s closest allies.
The delegation had been growing slowly throughout Wednesday evening. Nadhim Zahawi, who had accepted the post of Chancellor less than 24 hours earlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Cabinet Office Minister Kit Malthouse, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart and Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps were present at several points. Even Simon Clarke, the Treasury minister and one of Johnson’s most loyal supporters since the early days of his leadership campaign, joined by phone. “Everyone in this room agreed that the game was over,” one of those present said. “Everyone was there to say that.”
Those still baptized by the Prime Minister did so with varying degrees of conviction. James Duddridge, Johnson’s ministerial aide, had a polite conversation. Cabinet Office Minister Nigel Adams and Communications Director Guto Harri came in and out. The most fervent attempts to save Johnson’s position as Prime Minister were made by Ben Elliot, the Conservative president, and Andrew Griffith, the head of political unit number 10, the luxurious Westminster home was used as the headquarters of the campaign. Johnson’s leadership just three years earlier.
Ministers were forced to wait. Even at this late hour, Johnson’s inner circle was making last-minute attempts to persuade them that he should stay in power. When nerves gave way to starvation (the only subsistence was a slow stream of tea and cookies), some ministers were moved to rooms separated by Johnson’s remaining faithful as they tried to convince them that the ship could be tidied up.
It was Zahawi who most tried to convince Johnson’s team that it was over. “The herd is making a stamp,” he told them. “Once the herd escapes, you just have to get out of the way.” Griffith, whose contemptuous approach angered several ministers during the tense night, responded. “What you have to understand,” he replied, “is that the flock will get tired after a while and eat grass again.”
There were attractions before the group could see the prime minister. First, Johnson had to complete his forceful appearance before the liaison committee, made up of select committee chairs, which took a surreal turn as he was told that the growing number of ministers waiting for him in the number 10. had finished, David Canzini, the deputy chief of staff, told experts the appearance had been “as bad as possible.”
With a moment of farce, Johnson had his regular update, over the phone, with the Queen. Then the really difficult conversations began. First was a meeting with Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory Committee in 1922. He informed the Prime Minister, sitting passively next to his main whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, that party rules would likely change to allow a second vote of censure. to the Prime Minister, who would surely lose. Johnson was polite in completely rejecting the request.
Glum faces cabinet on Tuesday morning Photo: Getty Images
Only then, and only one by one, were the cabinet ministers able to visit the prime minister to deliver his verdicts. By all accounts, the prime minister remained in a good mood, but there was no sign that he was willing to accept any of the arguments presented to him. For some, he protested that it was unfair to be asked to give up the job he had coveted for so long. For others, he argued that he had a mandate not through Conservative MPs, but from 14 million voters who supported him. He said he “had to” keep fighting. Some said he seemed strangely optimistic and had “a lot more juice in the tank.” It made it even harder, but some found it unsettling.
“It’s weird that he’s become slightly trumpy,” one said. “It’s all: ‘I’m not leaving, I don’t see any boats, everything is fine. One more push and we’ll get it right. None of this is my fault. I was the victim of a kick, if only the party understood how good it was’. It’s weird. “
In fact, on Wednesday evening, Westminster and Whitehall figures began to worry about how far Johnson would go in his refusal to relinquish power. Levels of denial inside the bunker had become too much for a cabinet minister. “They’re all crazy,” he despaired of a friend. “They’re all crazy.”
When Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis had flown in and headed to Downing Street to deliver his verdict on Johnson, the resignations of party and government officials were approaching half a century. Now there were real doubts that the posts could be filled.
Even parliamentary sources are concerned that events have taken a trumpy turn. They feared American-style demonstrations if Johnson refused to go. “The mafia government is our biggest fear now,” said a Commons source, who warned that a prolonged refusal to step down could spark divisive protests outside parliament. They were desperate to avoid “a Capitol Hill.”
Ironically for a prime minister who opposed the conventions and rules of the Whitehall establishment, it was the quiet but devastating intervention of an official that had brought down the domino on Tuesday.
Former Secretary of Health Sajid Javid makes his devastating personal statement to the House on Wednesday Photo: Jessica Taylor / AP
Sir Simon McDonald, the former senior Foreign Office official, said that despite repeated allegations, Johnson had heard previous allegations related to Chris Pincher, the deputy director of the faucet suspended for allegedly touching two men.
Strange as it may seem now, there were times when Downing Street helpers thought they could stop the slide caused by that intervention.
A grave alarm was raised when aides saw footage of the cabinet meeting Tuesday morning. With more comical timing, the television cameras had been able to film it, with the ministers visibly grumpy and uncomfortable.
After a disastrous briefing with political reporters, Downing Street struggled to deal with questions about what exactly the Prime Minister had known about the allegations against Pincher. The decision was made to put Johnson in front of a camera as soon as possible, to apologize for his handling of the affair and “eat some shit” to avoid resignations.
When members of Johnson’s team began seeing footage of his apology on camera, they thought they might have acted quickly enough to stop further damage. Then came the news: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, had resigned, warning that the British people “rightly await the integrity of their government”. Minutes later, Chancellor Rishi Sunak followed with a similar warning that the public “expects the government to conduct itself properly, competently and seriously.”
It seemed like a coordinated cabinet move, but as they waited for more cabinet names to follow, none arrived. A strange confidence grew between the Prime Minister’s inner circle that they could overcome it.
The decision was made to replace the two cabinet leavers. A privileged person said, “There was the feeling of, ‘shit.’ Not many have followed them. We certainly have better appointments politically for what we need right now. We live to fight another day.” Jacob Rees-Mogg went on the air to compare the threat to Johnson with that faced by Harold Macmillan in 1958, when his entire Treasury team resigned, a development Macmillan described as “a small local difficulty.”
In fact, although several cabinet ministers began to make it clear that they were not resigning, MPs had begun to resign from positions such as envoys, ministerial aides and party vice-presidents.
One of the first most exciting outings was that of the very loyal “Red Wall” deputy Jonathan Gullis. The resignations began to pick up speed throughout Wednesday morning. Level Secretary Michael Gove also took the first big step in telling Johnson to go with dignity, an intervention that saw him end the crisis as the only person fired by Johnson. His expulsion provoked instant anger within the government, including within No. 10.
A minor minister, Jo Churchill, published her letter during the humiliating questions of a prime minister in which Labor leader Keir Starmer described the government’s implosion as “the first recorded case of the ship sinking fleeing the rat “.
Boris Johnson delivers his challenging resignation speech on Thursday Photo: Henry Nicholls / Reuters
The scene was stolen by Conservative MP Gary Sambrook, who received applause from opposition parties when he concluded that Johnson “always tries to blame others for his mistakes and has nothing left to do but take responsibility and resign “.
It was hardly the beginning of the humiliation Johnson had to suffer. The next was Javid’s resignation speech, in which Johnson tried and couldn’t help but shake his head in frustration. When Javid finished, Johnson’s left heel repeatedly hit the floor of the House of Commons.
Matters took their strangest turn during Johnson’s liaison committee hearing a couple of hours later. Huw Merriman, one of the deputies to interrogate Johnson, tweeted his letter calling for the resignation of the prime minister while sitting a few feet from him.
The mystery for many cabinet members who saw a Johnson still challenging that Wednesday evening is precisely what made him change his mind and step back from his Trump moment. Figures close to him suggest a time to reflect on his private apartment, combined with the “cold light of day,” made him face reality in the early hours of Thursday morning.
He began work on a resignation letter early on and Nigel Adams was ordered to get Graham Brady back on the phone. When the couple spoke again at 8.30 in the morning, Johnson, calm once again, said he would agree to go …