Key Points
- United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he will resign as Conservative Party leader.
- After days of battling for his job, he had been abandoned by all but a handful of allies.
Boris Johnson has announced he will resign as Conservative Party leader but will remain as prime minister in caretaker mode until a new successor is appointed.
Mr Johnson said it was "painful" to step aside as the Tory leader, describing it as the "best job in the world" but had to act appropriately in the interests of his party.
"It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister," Mr Johnson said in his address to the media in front of No 10 Downing Street.
“I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks,” he said.
He said the timetable for choosing a new leader would be announced next week.
In the hour leading up to his resignation announcement, Mr Johnson appointed several new cabinet ministers to serve, as he would, "until a new leader is in place”.
Among boos and cheers, Mr Johnson said he attempted to convince his colleagues that "it would be eccentric to change governments" while serving during a mandate and in the midst of a cost of living crisis, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"I regret not to have been successful in those arguments," he said.
"As we've seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves. And my friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable.
"Our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.
"Even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden."
Politicians and staffers UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation in his resignation as Tory leader. Source: Getty / Leon Neal
Mr Johnson had been clinging on to power despite a wave of more than 50 government resignations — abandoned by all but a handful of allies.
It was far cry from when Mr Johnson, 58, rose to power in 2019 when he won a large majority, capturing votes in parts of the UK that had never supported his Conservative Party before.
Even his chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, who was only appointed to his post on Wednesday, had called on his boss to resign.
"This is not sustainable and it will only get worse: for you, for the Conservative Party and most importantly of all the country," he said on Twitter.
"You must do the right thing and go now."
With AFP and Reuters
