07-06-2022, 06:12 PM
UK’s Boris Johnson fights for his political survival after top resignations and scandals
- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership is hanging by a thread after the resignations of two of his most high-profile ministers and several other top officials and ministerial aides in the last 24 hours.
- British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid both resigned on Tuesday in protest against Johnson’s leadership.
- But despite calls to resign, the prime minister shows no signs of being ready to stand down. Last night, he reshuffled his ministerial team to fill the vacancies created by the shock resignations.
LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership is hanging by a thread after the resignations of two of his most high-profile ministers and several other top officials and ministerial aides in the last 24 hours.
British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak resigned Tuesday evening, saying the government should be run “properly, competently and seriously.” Health Secretary Sajid Javid, likewise, resigned in protest against Johnson’s leadership, which has been beset by controversy and scandal in recent months.
As a number of senior Tories called for Johnson to quit, the government’s former Brexit negotiator David Frost also joined the fray, calling on the prime minister to step down without delay. In a newspaper column Wednesday, Frost echoed other critics of Johnson by stating emphatically that “it is time for him to go,” adding that “if he hangs on, he risks taking the party and the government down with him.”
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