British Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid have resigned from their Cabinet positions in the Johnson administration after the Prime Minister (PM) claimed to be unaware of the 2019 groping allegations against parliamentarian Chris Pincher.
In his resignation letter to Johnson, Sunak said that “The public rightly expect the 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.” Sunak noted that he had come to acknowledge that their approaches are “fundamentally too different.”
The public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 5, 2022
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.
My letter to the Prime Minister below. pic.twitter.com/vZ1APB1ik1
Javid’s resignation letter also followed a similar tone. “I can no longer, in good conscience, continue serving in this Government. I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their Government,” he said. Javid further reasoned that “The tone you set as a leader, and the values you represent, reflect on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country.” He went on to write that “Conservatives at their best are seen as hard-headed decision-makers, guided by strong values,” lamenting, however, that “in the current circumstances, the public are concluding that we are now neither.” “It is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership - and you have therefore lost my confidence too. I served you loyally and as a friend, but we all serve the country first. When made to choose between those loyalties there can only be one answer,” Javid concluded.
Javid also made reference to the internal trust vote last month, when 41% or almost 150 members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own Conservative party voted against him.
Boris Johnson just lied
— Edward Hardy (@EdwardTHardy) July 6, 2022
He did not remove the Conservative whip from Chris Pincher "as soon as" he was made aware of the complaint against him
Johnson only removed the whip from Pincher after mounting pressure from the public and his own party
Following Sunak and Javid’s resignations, the UK government announced the approval of new appointments to the vacant positions. Nadhim Zahawi has been as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, wherein Steve Barclay will take his new role as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, while Michelle Donelan has been appointed as the Secretary of State for Education.
The PM also thanked both Sunak and Javid for their service, celebrating their contributions to the furlough scheme, public service funding, post-pandemic economic recovery, tax cuts, combatting COVID-19, and reforming social care.
Both resignations came minutes after the PM admitted in an interview that he regretted appointing Conservative MP Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip in February despite being aware of sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Boris Johnson is the only Prime Minister since the war to have two Chancellors resign from his government, a mark of the instability of his administration which is only three years old. Typically Chancellors endure. https://t.co/h9jp4yPQkR
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) July 5, 2022
Support for Boris Johnson’s leadership has been thinning over the past year, largely due to the Partygate scandal and the subsequent Sue Gray report, which detailed several lockdown parties that were held while COVID-19 social distancing measures were in place.
He has also faced backlash for misappropriation of public funds and attempting to secure a high-profile position for a former mistress.
However, the latest scandal has pushed his administration to the brink of collapse. The PM’s spokesperson admitted on Tuesday that the leader had been briefed about sexual misconduct allegations against Pincher in 2019; however, he claimed that Johnson “forgot” about it.
Following groping allegations, Pincher resigned over the weekend. He also admitted to the incident and announced that he is now seeking professional support.
Keir Starmer kicks off #PMQs by repeating account of Chris Pincher victim: “He grabbed my arse and slowly moved his hands down towards my groin. I froze”.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) July 6, 2022
House of Commons silent. Starmer asks why Boris Johnson promoted him.
In response to the controversy, Johnson admitted that he “bitterly” regretted not having acted on the accusations and that Pincher’s promotion “was the wrong thing to do.”
Sunak and Javid’s resignations have triggered a wave of resignations from several other ministers and officials in protest of Johnson’s leadership, including Alex Chalk as solicitor general, Bim Afolami resigning as Tory vice-chair, Will Quince as children’s minister, Robin Walker as schools minister, Victoria Atkins as justice minister, John Glen as financial secretary to the treasury, Theo Clarke and Andrew Murrison as trade envoys. Ministerial aides Jonathan Gullis, Saqib Bhatti, Nicola Richards, Laura Trott, Felicity Buchan, and Virginia Crosbie also stepped down. In total, there have been 16 resignations over the past 24 hours.
J. Afolami, who quit on live TV, said that the administration’s mishandling of the Chris Pincher allegations had been “really appalling” and that he could no longer “defend that sort of behaviour.”
The number of Britons who want Boris Johnson to resign has reached a new high, at 69%.
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 5, 2022
The majority of 2019 Conservative voters (54%) also want to see the PM go, the first time this has been higher than the number who want him to stay (33%)https://t.co/EdF2u3hW1Z https://t.co/dNLiHNtf6E pic.twitter.com/uQb2x5bZtB
The massive loss of support has jeopardised Johnson’s political future. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said that he “and a lot of the party” were “determined” that Johnson “should be gone by summer recess.”
The party’s feelings towards the embattled leader were also reflected in a recent public poll. A snap poll of more than 3,000 people carried out by YouGov found that seven in 10 Britons think PM Johnson should resign. This was an 11-point increase in favour of the leader’s resignation from last month.
Despite his overall dwindling popularity and growing discontent within his own party, Johnson has repeatedly refused to step down from his position. In fact, the leader said last month that he would remain PM into the “mid-2030s.”
Boris Johnson’s desperate attempts to cover up what he knew about complaints against Chris Pincher have been blown out the water.
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) July 5, 2022
It’s clear the PM knew about the seriousness of these complaints but promoted this man anyway.
He refused to act and then lied about what he knew.
However, following the Fincher scandal, opposition and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a snap election, saying, “After all the sleaze, all the failure, it's clear that this Tory government is now collapsing.”
Similarly, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said of Johnson’s government: “the whole rotten lot” must resign.
In fact, it is thought that the mass resignations within the Conservative party indicate that those who have stepped down could put their own names forward to replace Johnson.