Boris Johnson resigns as foreign secretary to deepen British government crisis
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Downing Street: “This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.”
David Davis’s resignation as Brexit secretary did not trigger an immediate threat to Theresa May’s leadership. He insisted that he wanted her to stay as prime minister and, by lunchtime today, despite numerous Tory Brexiters taking to the airwaves denouncing May’s Brexit plan, we had not heard any calls for her departure. That was because, with most cabinet ministers supporting her, it seemed very likely that May would win a confidence vote handsomely.
Now, though, the Brexiters have got an alternative candidate – assuming Johnson does mount a leadership challenge. Whether he will or not is unclear at this point; as I write, we have not heard any statement from Johnson. And, after the Heathrow expansion vote no-show and Johnson’s decision to back May’s plan at Chequers on Friday after telling cabinet ministers that doing so amounts to “polishing a turd”, Johnson is a diminished figure. But he has wanted to be prime minister since he was a child (or “king of the world”, as he described his goal then) and this is probably he last chance. A challenge does seem very likely.
Could he win? It would be very hard. Only 129 Conservative MPs voted leave – less than half – and even many of those have reservations about the hard Brexit vision set out by Johnson, which the cabinet comprehensively rejected on Friday. Also, amongst colleagues, trust in Johnson is low. Johnson is popular with Conservative party members. But they would only get to vote in a leadership contest if May were to lose a vote of confidence, and May is reportedly keen to fight and win such a contest.
