Boris Johnson's Fall Gives Brexit a Chance to Succeed
How Boris Johnson Fell, and What Happens Next
Britain's prime minister said he would step down, less than three years later a landslide election victory. Here's a guide to why he was forced out and who might succeed him.
LONDON — I of his predecessors described him as a "greased piglet": a man who could slip out of any tight situation.
And despite a damaging scandal involving parties during Britain'due south coronavirus lockdown that brought him a fine and a stinging official written report, Prime Minister Boris Johnson might have expected to be in a strong position.
A little less than three years ago, Mr. Johnson led the Bourgeois Party to its biggest election victory in decades. Until the adjacent general election — on a appointment set by the prime minister, and potentially equally late as Jan 2025 — simply his own political party'southward lawmakers could force him out.
Early in June, they declined to do and then, backing him in a no-confidence vote. And nevertheless on July 7, after a new scandal prompted a torrent of resignations and denunciations from cabinet ministers and other officials, he appear that he would stride down once his political party had chosen a successor.
Here's a guide to how he got to that point, and to the process that will decide his replacement.
The trouble started with 'partygate,' but information technology didn't end there.
Since late last year, Mr. Johnson has been grappling with a series of reports about parties in Downing Street, where British prime number ministers both live and piece of work, while Covid lockdown rules were in force. The scandal became known as "partygate."
In May, a long-awaited internal inquiry past a senior ceremonious servant, Sue Greyness, institute that 83 people violated the rules at parties, during which some drank heavily, fought with each other and damaged belongings. The London police said they had imposed 126 fines for breaches of social distancing. Mr. Johnson himself received merely one, for a surprise lunchtime birthday celebration, despite existence present at several gatherings for which others were fined.
Just in a country that banned about all social contact for months and kept lesser, just all the same onerous, restrictions far longer, the claims of dominion-breaking have packed an boggling emotional punch. Members of Parliament responded to Mr. Johnson's initial denials of wrongdoing, and then to his apologies, with testimony from people who were barred from visiting dying relatives at the fourth dimension of the gatherings.
A serial of sexual misconduct scandals among Conservative lawmakers further damaged Mr. Johnson. July'due south wave of resignations came later the departure of Chris Pincher, a deputy chief whip — responsible for keeping Conservative lawmakers in line — who was placed in that job by Mr. Johnson despite accusations of inappropriate behavior. Ministers and other officials denied on Mr. Johnson'due south behalf that he had been aware of those accusations, only for successive accounts to chop-chop unravel.
Epitome
Boris Johnson's critics had already tried and failed to remove him.
In Britain, information technology is difficult to get rid of a prime minister, but far from impossible. The chore goes to the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority. The party can oust its leader and choose some other one, irresolute prime ministers without a general election.
Under the Bourgeois Party's rules, its members of Parliament could hold a binding vote of no confidence in Mr. Johnson if xv percent of them — which currently ways 54 lawmakers — wrote to formally asking ane. That moment came for Mr. Johnson on June 6, with a vote the same evening.
Mr. Johnson received 211 votes — just under 60 percent of his political party's 359 lawmakers — with 148 confronting him.
That was a weaker result than information technology sounds, because almost half of those lawmakers besides had government jobs that normally oblige them to back Mr. Johnson. The vote was a hush-hush ballot, still, so it is impossible to know if all of them did.
Only and then came the chiffonier resignations.
For a prime number minister in problem, winning a no-confidence vote is essential, just not ever enough. Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May were both out of office inside a yr of defeating a leadership claiming, past larger margins than Mr. Johnson.
One key factor is whether chiffonier ministers rebel. The goad for Mrs. Thatcher'due south demise in 1990 was the resignation of Geoffrey Howe, a disaffected former ally, and Mrs. May lost several ministers, including Mr. Johnson, who quit as strange secretary in 2018.
On the evening of July 5, 2 of Mr. Johnson'due south top ministers — Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the health secretary — resigned within minutes of ane another. More decisively, a flood of farther resignations followed, with more than 50 members of Parliament quitting cabinet roles or other government positions by July vii, including some appointed to replace those who had already resigned.
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And at that place was heavy pressure behind the scenes.
The next stage was one time known equally a visit from the "men in grey suits," a phrase dating from an age when all key power brokers were men. In those days, when a group known as the "magic circumvolve" chose the Conservative leader, such bigwigs could withdraw back up, too. And leaders can sometimes still be persuaded to depart on their own terms rather than be booted out.
Mrs. May resigned in 2019, after surviving a leadership vote, when it was clear that her position had become hopeless. Similar pressure, accompanied by ministerial resignations, was used to adios Tony Blair, the Labour Party prime minister, from Downing Street in 2007. On July 6, Downing Street was practically a catwalk for gray suits, with a parade of ministers and party officials visiting Mr. Johnson and seeking to convince him that his position was untenable.
Mr. Johnson was not easily convinced. That dark, he even fired his housing secretarial assistant, Michael Gove, a beau Brexit campaigner and Conservative power broker who was reportedly among the first to make a private appeal to him that solar day.
The side by side morn, Mr. Johnson let it be known that he had changed his mind, acknowledging in a speech communication later that day that information technology was clearly "the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party" that he step aside.
There isn't a articulate successor.
One of the reasons that Mr. Johnson's ousting was and then messy is because in that location is no consensus on who would replace him.
Mr. Sunak, long considered the almost probable successor, has himself suffered a autumn from grace. He was fined for attending the same political party as Mr. Johnson, and has too faced damaging reports around the revenue enhancement status of his wealthy wife.
Liz Truss, the strange secretary, remained in the government and is a leading contender. So is Penny Mordaunt, a one-time defense secretarial assistant who was demoted by Mr. Johnson and tin present herself as more of a clean interruption.
The process that will determine Mr. Johnson's successor, however, has a tape of producing surprises.
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And information technology might have a while to chose i.
Mr. Johnson's plan to remain in 10 Downing Street until a successor is called follows the pattern of his two well-nigh recent predecessors.
But the timetable for the leadership contest is not in his hands, and it does not follow a published gear up of rules.
Though the broad outlines of the 2-stage process remain constant, the details and the schedule are set up each time by the same commission of backbench Bourgeois lawmakers that makes decisions about no-confidence votes. Information technology is called the 1922 Commission, in honor of the meeting that decided another episode of political party tumult a century ago.
First, Conservative lawmakers hold a serial of ballots amongst themselves to whittle the number of contenders down to 2. In 2019, when Mr. Johnson won, the process began with 10 candidates, and took six ballots. This time, lawmakers aim to exist done before Parliament takes its summer vacation, which starts on July 21.
Eleven lawmakers sought to run this time, only only three remained on Tuesday, after the beginning iv rounds of voting. Mr. Sunak emerged in the lead, followed by Ms. Mordaunt, with Ms. Truss third.
Once it'southward downward to 2 candidates, the party'south entire dues-paying membership gets a ballot to chose between them. Equally of last year, according to a speech by a party official, there were near 200,000 Conservative members; they pay a standard annual subscription of 25 pounds, about $30.
The concluding 2 candidates in 2019, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hunt, were given six weeks to make their cases. The event was announced some 46 days after Mrs. May had resigned as party leader, and Mr. Johnson visited Queen Elizabeth to be appointed prime number minister the next day.
This time, the event is due on Sept. 5. That would give the new prime number minister time to prepare for a major televised speech at the Conservative Party's almanac conference the next month.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/boris-johnson-prime-minister-explained.html
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