Until the very end, Boris Johnson clung to power. The 58-year-old has now announced that he is stepping down as party leader. Soon he will also have to give up the post of head of government. What does this mean for the future of Britain?
Boris Johnson’s days as British Prime Minister are numbered. At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, he announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party.
It was the clear will of his party that there should be a new party leader. “I want you to know how sad I am to be leaving the best job in the world,” Johnson said. The 58-year-old wants to remain prime minister until a successor has been elected.
So maybe until the fall. For many party friends, that would be an impertinence: they demand that Johnson vacate his post as head of government immediately.
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There is already speculation about who could follow the 58-year-old. “In my opinion, ex-Environment Minister Michael Gove has a chance,” says Roland Sturm in an interview with FOCUS Online. He heads the chair for comparative politics at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak could also be a possible candidate for the post of Prime Minister. “However, he is himself involved in a financial scandal and it is questionable whether the party will bet on him.”
Sturm assesses the prospects of British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss of following in Johnson’s footsteps as rather slim. “I think she’d be willing to take the job,” he says. “But she stood by Johnson’s side to the end, so she may have lost the reputation she deserves.”
Because unlike many other cabinet members and parliamentary government employees, Truss did not resign from office. In Parliament, “there was already a threat that anyone who remains in Johnson’s cabinet would no longer have a political future,” said Sturm. Bad prospects for the British Foreign Secretary.
Gerhard Dannemann, professor at the “Centre for British Studies” at the Humboldt University in Berlin, assumes that eight to ten people are currently in serious discussions. “But it is difficult to predict who it will be,” he says to FOCUS Online.
The political scientist believes that the British Defense Minister Ben Wallace and the Development Aid Minister Penny Mordaunt have good chances. And unlike Sturm, he can also imagine Lizz Truss as the successor to Prime Minister.
What is certain is that a new head of government could also change Britain’s relationship with the EU. Just a few weeks ago, Johnson announced a change to the Northern Ireland Protocol. It is part of the Brexit agreement between Europe and Great Britain and includes customs controls on goods exchanged with Northern Ireland.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) threatened the British government with strict measures because of the planned breach of the Brexit agreements. “It is a very unfortunate decision. And there’s no reason for it,” he said at the time.
Political scientist Sturm says: “What becomes of the Northern Ireland protocol depends on whether Johnson’s successor continues to pursue a confrontational course. That would be expected with Lizz Truss, but not with Michael Gove.” In any case, the Greens in the European Parliament emphasized that Johnson’s exit offers the chance for a new start between the United Kingdom and the EU.
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How Johnson was able to stay in office for so long is a mystery to many observers. After all, the British Prime Minister has been criticized for months for illegal lockdown parties in Downing Street. He even received a penalty order from the police. Nevertheless, the 58-year-old denied any wrongdoing for a long time.
The recent government crisis in Westminster was triggered by a scandal surrounding Johnson’s party colleague Chris Pincher, who is accused of sexual harassment. It was previously revealed that Johnson knew about the allegations against Pincher before he promoted him to a key faction position. His spokesman had previously denied this several times.
“The current Pincher affair was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says Sturm. “The late admissions, the lies, this recurring pattern was just too much in the end.”
Because: Actually, the code of conduct for British ministers adopted in 2022 states that MPs who lie to Parliament must resign. A rule that Johnson obviously did not follow himself.
According to Sturm, the fact that he was able to stay in office for so long is due to the support of his party. “The landslide victory in the 2019 election inspired Johnson not to resign,” said the political scientist. And Dannemann says: “Boris Johnson chose his cabinet members and his entire squad of ministers and state secretaries less for competence and more for loyalty.”
Not much remains of that loyalty today. Numerous party colleagues recently opposed the prime minister. As the broadcaster “Sky News” reported on Wednesday evening, a delegation of cabinet members visited Johnson at government headquarters and asked him to resign.
Among them are said to have been Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi, Transport Minister Grant Shapps, the previously ultra-loyal Home Secretary Priti Patel, Economics Minister Kwasi Kwarteng and Building Minister Michael Gove.
However, Johnson told his cabinet colleagues that he would not go, “Sky News” reported in the evening, citing party and government circles. Otherwise the country will be thrown into chaos and the conservatives will be punished in the next parliamentary elections.
But the pressure on the 58-year-old was probably too great in the end. His resignation as party leader is sealed, his time as head of government is coming to an end. Possibly even faster than he would like.
“So far, Johnson has only resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and intends to remain in office as Prime Minister until the party names his or her successor. But I doubt that he will be able to hold on as prime minister for that long,” says Dannemann.
