Mahama slams NPP over ‘debt-driven’ economic hardship.
November 8, 2024
Boris Johnson has announced his resignation as prime minister after less than three years in Number 10, saying: “No one in politics is remotely indispensable.”
Speaking from Downing Street, he thanked the millions of people who voted Conservative at the last election, and said the reason he fought so long to remain in office was because “I thought it was my job, my duty and my obligation to you”.
He also said he had tried to persuade his cabinet it would be “eccentric” to change prime minister now, but added: “I regret not to have been successful in those arguments.
“At Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves.”
Mr Johnson confirmed the process to appoint a new leader would begin now, with a timetable set out next week.
Yet it is still not clear exactly when he will leave Number 10 for the final time, and his new cabinet has met this afternoon to talk about its plans.
‘The best job in the world’
Addressing the British public, he added: “I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.”
And concluding his speech, Mr Johnson said: “I’ve travelled to every part of the United Kingdom and in addition to the beauty of our natural world, I find so many people possessed of such boundless British originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that I know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden.”
There had been intense pressure on the PM to quit over the past 48 hours after more than 50 resignations from the government payroll, and waves of backbenchers appealing for him to go.
The mass rebellion began on Tuesday after Downing Street admitted the PM knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour against disgraced former Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher in 2019, but still appointed him in February and sent ministers out to defend him.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were the first to resign on Tuesday night, but over the following days, MPs from all levels of government piled in their letters and demands for him to go.
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