Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suddenly announced his resignation as a parliamentarian, triggering a political tsunami within the British ruling Conservative Party. In addition to Johnson, two Conservative MPs have announced their resignations, leaving the Conservatives facing three unpopular by-elections.
Not only that, but some Johnson supporters say more MPs will resign in the coming days, which will undoubtedly plunge the Conservative Party and the government led by current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak into a deeper political crisis. Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party has called for an early general election, putting pressure on the Conservatives, who are lagging behind in the polls.
The ripple effect of Johnson's resignation
On the evening of June 9, local time, Johnson released a 1,000-word statement announcing that he would resign as a member of the British Parliament. Johnson resigned as prime minister in July 2022 amid a series of scandals including partygates, but he remains a member of parliament for the London constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
What triggered Johnson's resignation this time is still the partygate investigation. The so-called "partygate" refers to the fact that when Johnson was prime minister, he held and participated in many illegal gatherings during the epidemic prevention and control period. He himself received a fine from the British police, and the British Parliament launched an investigation into him.
According to the BBC, the British Parliament's House of Commons Privilege Committee plans to release a partygate inquiry report next week to determine whether Johnson intentionally misled parliament and contempt of parliament in the partygate investigation. At that time, the committee would recommend that Johnson be suspended for 10 days, but Johnson leaked the report in advance and announced his resignation in anger.
In his resignation statement, Johnson called the partygate investigation a "witch hunt" and that the draft report was "rife with inaccurate content and the smell of bias." He called the prerogative commission in charge of the investigation a "kangaroo court," saying its purpose was to "convict me regardless of the facts."
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo/Visual China
On Johnson's resignation, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner called Johnson a "coward" who "jumped before being driven away". Chris Bryant of Labour, chairman of the British parliamentary privilege committee, said Johnson had leaked the content before the report was released, which could lead him to further contempt charges. Bryant told the BBC that Johnson's attack on the Privileges Committee "is actually an attack on the entire House of Commons".
Within the Conservative Party, opinions are divided over Johnson's resignation. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel praised Johnson's move, calling him a "political giant." Another Conservative MP, Andrea Jenkins, publicly attacked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on social media, sarcastically saying that "Rishi started this nonsense, well done".
In fact, Johnson's abrupt resignation set off a chain reaction. According to Reuters, on June 10, local time, Johnson's ally and another Conservative MP Nigel Adams announced his resignation. Adams had previously said he would not run in the next parliamentary election, but has now announced his resignation early.
In addition, earlier on the day of Johnson's resignation, his ally, former culture secretary and Conservative MP Nadine Doris also announced his resignation.
Three MPs resigned in less than 24 hours, meaning the Conservatives are on the verge of facing three regional by-elections. For the Conservative Party, which is currently more focused on governing and focusing on next year's parliamentary election, time-consuming, costly, and energy-consuming by-elections are very undesirable.
The Conservatives face a crisis of "civil war"
With three Conservative MPs resigning in quick succession, Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party hierarchy are nervously watching to see if more of Johnson's allies will resign as MPs. According to Sky News, many fear that the current dispute will plunge the Conservatives into civil war.
According to a number of British media reports, a number of Conservative MPs are currently waiting and seeing, and may announce their resignations. Johnson's supporters say as many as six lawmakers could resign. On the evening of June 10, another Conservative MP, Bill Cash, announced that he would not run in the next general election, but did not announce his immediate resignation. Cash is a senior Conservative MP who was first elected in 1984.
There are also analysts who believe that there will be no more Conservative MPs resigning, because some of Johnson's close allies, although they verbally expressed support for Johnson, publicly said that they would not resign.
Jacob Reese-Mogg, a former secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy in Johnson's government, said in Mail on Sunday that he would not resign as MP and that "I will continue to run for my seat in the next general election while campaigning for the Conservative Party's national victory." ”
Mog also warned Sunak directly, saying that "if Boris seeks a party nomination for another seat, I strongly warn the Conservative leader not to try to stop him" and that "any such attempt will undermine our fragile party unity and plunge the Conservative Party into civil war".
In his resignation statement, Johnson hinted that he could return again. "It's very sad to leave parliament – at least for now." He said. Will Walden, Johnson's former adviser, also said that Johnson's announcement of his resignation as a lawmaker before the partygate report was released did not mean that he ended his political career.
Johnson and Sunak. Photo/Visual China
But according to The Guardian, the top Conservative Party is currently asking Sunak to take action to ensure Johnson has no path back to parliament for the foreseeable future, arguing that Johnson and his allies are trying to undermine the government. A Conservative 1922 committee backbencher said Conservative lawmakers mostly believed Johnson should be barred from running in the next general election.
Surveys within the Conservative Party show that a majority of Conservative MPs are dissatisfied with Johnson's actions. Many lawmakers reportedly believe the resignation of Johnson and his allies will destroy Sunak's efforts to restore order within the party. One lawmaker said Johnson's denial was doing party damage, "they just don't want Rishi to win."
The dispute has sharpened the differences between the Johnson and Sunakites. Sunak's ally, a senior Conservative MP, told The Independent: "This is the finale of Boris's mad drama. It's good to throw off (them). One of Johnson's allies told the Sunday Times that Sunak thought he was smart, but in fact "he was very stupid."
Labour 'smelled blood'
"Labour smells blood." Reuters reported on June 10 that the Labour Party is clearly happy to see the current chaos in the Conservative Party.
Labor Deputy Leader Reiner said on the 10th that the Labour Party will try to win these constituencies, "They created by-elections because they threw toys out of the cradle." According to The Guardian, polling data shows that in the three constituencies that have been largely confirmed to hold by-elections, Labor is highly likely to win Johnson's constituency, while the other two are likely to remain controlled by the Conservatives.
For the Conservatives, falling into by-elections at this time is undoubtedly worse. The UK is expected to hold a general election in 2024, and polling data shows that Labour's national poll is 16 percentage points higher than that of the Conservative Party. The British "Observer" analysis also pointed out that the Labour Party leads the Conservative Party in more than 100 key seats, and the victory or defeat of these seats will largely determine the victory or defeat of the general election.
In December 2019, Johnson led the Conservatives to a landslide victory in that year's parliamentary election. However, since 2022, political turmoil and crisis within the Conservative Party have continued. In July 2022, Johnson announced his resignation as prime minister. Truss was elected prime minister but was forced to resign just 44 days later. In October 2022, Sunak took over as Prime Minister, becoming the third British Prime Minister in three months.
Former British Prime Minister Truss. Photo/Visual China
After Sunak came to power, there was a period of calm within the Conservative Party. However, due to the cost of living crisis, inflation crisis, and intensified economic crisis, Sunak government polls continued to fall. In the local elections in May, the Conservatives lost control of 48 parliaments, with a net loss of 1,061 local councillors. Labour is now the largest party in local government, claiming the title from the Conservatives for the first time since 2002.
The analysis believes that the defeat of the local election in May has sounded the alarm for Sunak and the Conservative Party, and the chaos caused by Johnson's resignation has made the situation facing the Conservative Party even less optimistic and has also plummeted the morale of the Conservative Party. According to statistics, 44 parliamentarians have announced that they will not participate in the next general election.
Some Conservative MPs have called on Sunak to take action to ensure unity within the party. Backbencher John Redwood said Sunak must issue a statement "urgently to reassure staunch Boris fans and Liz Truss fans that his party is for all Conservatives". Redwood believes the Conservatives need "a little bit of Boris magic" when it comes to constituents.
But Chris Patten, a veteran Conservative politician, said he wanted Johnson's resignation "to be the end of a rather tragic period in British politics and the end of a tragic period for the Conservative Party". As of June 10, local time, Sunak has not made public comments on this.
Labour leader Starmer. Photo/Visual China
Faced with the current Conservative chaos, Labour leader Kiel Starmer took the opportunity to renew his call for an early general election, saying that the resignation of three high-ranking Conservative MPs meant Sunak had lost control of the government.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Starmer said: "Rishi Sunak must find the courage to declare a general election and let the people judge the Conservative Party's defeat for 13 years" and that "this farce must stop, people have had enough".
Beijing News reporter Xie Lian
Edited by Tang Zheng Proofread by Zhao Lin