Boris Johnson has resigned as Conservative leader after more ministers withdrew their support for him.
In his resignation statement delivered outside of 10 Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, Johnson said that it was "painful not to be able to see through so many projects and ideas in person".
He said: "The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate (from the 2019 general election) in person, was not just because I wanted to do so, because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to do what we promised in 2019. I regret not to have been successful in those arguments.
"In politics, no one is remotely indispensable. I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world."
Johnson intends to remain prime minister until the autumn, enabling a Tory leadership contest to be held and his successor appointed prior to the party conference in October. However, he is facing calls from opposition MPs and from within his own party to leave Downing Street sooner.
Pledging to serve until his successor is confirmed, Johnson said: "Thank you, the British people, for the immense privilege you have given me. I know even if things can sometimes seem dark, our future together is golden."
The beleaguered PM had on Wednesday signalled his intentions to remain in office and sacked his levelling-up secretary, Michael Gove, for having asked him to resign.
Yet, in a remarkable U-turn on Thursday, Johnson declared that he had decided to stand down after some of his newly appointed cabinet ministers urged him to do so, including close ally and newly named chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi.
Zahawi, who was only appointed chancellor on Tuesday evening, said that while nobody would forget Johnson's achievements in government, he ought to "leave with dignity" and the "right thing" is to "go now".
The chancellor also said in his letter to the PM that the country "deserves a government that is not only stable, but which acts with integrity."
The PM also stated that he had met with Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, who informed him that it was the party's desire for him to go.
While Johnson expressed pride at his achievements in office, including delivering Brexit, leading the UK through the pandemic and standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine, his departure comes as a significant fall from grace for his premiership.
After succeeding Theresa May in July 2019, he won a general election in December of that year with a landslide majority, buoyed by his pledge to "get Brexit done" and level-up the country.
However, after criticism over the last two years of how his government had handled the pandemic, Johnson's government has since become embroiled in a series of scandals including sleaze accusations and the well-documented Partygate saga, which has curried up anger and resentment from the British public and MPs on both sides of the Commons.
After Johnson lost even more support in recent weeks over his handling of misconduct allegations against Tamworth MP Chris Pincher, and after the Tories suffered two damaging by-election defeats, many Conservative MPs finally decided that enough was enough, and Johnson eventually sided with their point of view and relented, with the reality having sunk in that "it was clearly now the will of the (Conservative) parliamentary party" for him to step down.
Responding to the news of the PM's departure, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that "it should have happened a long time ago" after Johnson had enabled "lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale" to manifest.
Sir Keir also insisted that Johnson should not remain until the autumn, saying that the Conservatives "can't inflict him on the country for the next few months" and has suggested that Labour could try to force a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons to remove him more quickly.
Meanwhile, attorney general Suella Braverman and backbench MP Steve Baker have declared their intention to stand for the party leadership. The timetable for the Conservative leadership contest will be set next week.
In the background, Johnson has begun appointed more ministers to his cabinet to enable government to function in the interim period. James Cleverly has been appointed education secretary, Greg Clark replaces Michael Gove as levelling-up secretary, Robert Buckland is the new secretary of state for Wales, Shailesh Vara the new Northern Ireland secretary, and Kit Malthouse has been named chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Andrew Stephenson will also attend cabinet meetings having been named minister without portfolio.
The full list of Conservatives to have resigned from cabinet, ministerial, secretarial or party roles now exceeds 50 and is as follows:
Cabinet ministers
- Chancellor Rishi Sunak
- Health secretary Sajid Javid
- Welsh secretary Simon Hart
- Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis
- Education secretary Michelle Donelan
Ministers
- Will Quince, education minister
- Alex Chalk, solicitor general
- Robin Walker, education minister
- John Glen, Treasury minister
- Victoria Atkins, justice minister
- Jo Churchill, environment minister
- Stuart Andrew, housing minister
- Kemi Badenoch, levelling-up minister
- Neil O'Brien, levelling-up minister
- Alex Burghart, education minister
- Lee Rowley, business minister
- Julia Lopez, culture minister
- Mims Davies, work and pensions minister
- Rachel Maclean, Home Office minister
- Mike Freer, equalities minister
- Edward Argar, health minister
- Helen Whately, treasury minister
- Damian Hinds, security minister
- George Freeman, science minister
- Guy Opperman, pensions minister
- Chris Philp, technology minister
- James Cartlidge, courts minister
- Caroline Johnson, Conservative party vice-chair
- Luke Hall, deputy chair of the Conservative party
- Rebecca Pow, environment minister
Parliamentary private secretaries
- Jonathan Gullis, Northern Ireland Office
- Saqib Bhatti, Department of Health and Social Care
- Nicola Richards, Department of Transport
- Virginia Crosbie, Welsh Office
- Laura Trott, Department of Transport
- Felicity Buchan, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Selaine Saxby, Treasury
- Claire Coutinho, Treasury
- David Johnston, Department for Education
- Duncan Baker, Department for Levelling-Up
- Craig Williams, Treasury
- Mark Logan, Northern Ireland Office
- Sara Britcliffe, Department for Education
- Ruth Edwards, Scottish Office
- Peter Gibson, Department for International Trade
- James Sunderland, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Jacob Young, Department for Levelling -Up
- Mark Fletcher, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- James Daly, Department for Work and Pensions
- Danny Kruger, Department for Levelling-Up
- Dr James Davies, Department of Health and Social Care
- Gareth Davies, Department of Health and Social Care
- Rob Butler, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Conservative party and trade envoy positions
- Bim Afolami, vice-chair of the Conservative Party for youth
- Andrew Murrison, trade envoy to Morocco
- Theodora Clarke, trade envoy to Kenya
- David Duguid, trade envoy to Angola and Zambia
- David Mundell, trade envoy for New Zealand
- Richard Graham, trade envoy for South East Asia
