Arthur Greene
The scandal-ridden UK prime minister Boris Johnson endured a torrid evening on Tuesday, as both his finance minister and health minister resigned within five minutes of one another.
Just minutes after Johnson publicly apologised for his latest scandal – promoting a man he knew had been accused of sexual misconduct – Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced his resignation.
Just minutes later, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak followed suit, leaving Johnson’s premiership in peril.
Their resignations were followed by several more junior ministers.
In Sunak’s resignation letter, he wrote: “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”
Meanwhile, Javid wrote: “the British people also rightly expect integrity from their Government. The tone you set as a leader, and the values you represent, reflect on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country.”
It should be noted that Sunak and Javid remained loyal to Johnson through countless other scandals.
This controversy, however, appears to have been one too many for the ministers, who have decided that they’re now better off parting ways with the prime minister.
It centres around Chris Pincher, the government’s Deputy Chief Whip, who faced allegations last week of groping two men whilst drunk at a private members’ club.
However, it later came to light that Johnson was already aware that Pincher had a reputation for sexual misconduct, and gave him a promotion after being made aware of this.
This opened the floodgate of ministerial resignations.
Sunak and Javid’s resignations at this stage signals that Johnson’s premiership now hangs by a thread – and they thought they could topple him.
But as of Wednesday morning, the embattled leader lives to see another day.
Government announced later on Tuesday that Sunak had been replaced as Chancellor by the education minister Nadim Zahawi, while Steve Barclay was announced as health minister.
