It has been a long time coming, but finally Cabinet ministers have walked. They simply cannot continue defending the lies, yes lies, coming out of Downing Street. The consequences of Johnson’s amorality are laid bare.
Gaps appearing around the Cabinet table…
The contents of the resignation letters from Sajid Javid, Health Secretary, and Rishi Sunak, Chancellor, are extraordinary, even by the standards of this government:
Rishi Sunak: ‘…the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously… that is why I am resigning’
Sajid Javid: ‘The vote of confidence was a moment for humility, grip and new direction… this situation will not change under your leadership and you have therefore lost my confidence too.’
Further junior ministerial resignations were happening as this commentary was being written this morning. In fact they have turned into such a torrent the blog is being updated for unfolding events. Extraordinary. This government is imploding before our eyes whilst the country faces an economic crisis and a war in Ukraine. It can’t carry on like this and the public will rightly conclude Johnson’s time is up.
So, what happens next? Remaining Cabinet members, many second-rate, will hold on, increasingly discredited but knowing they have their job only due to Johnson. It will not be enough. Johnson will never resign willingly but the Party is rapidly moving collectively to oust him. Rumours abound that delegations of ‘men in grey suits’ are seeing Johnson this afternoon. No longer a resignation by the Autumn but a likelihood of one this week, perhaps today. Johnson may not even last to attend the Liaison Committee scheduled for 3pm. Has ever a premiership collapsed so quickly? Elections to the 1922 Committee this month which sets the Tories’ leadership rules will be organising a leadership election, not changing the rules for another confidence vote. The findings of the Privileges Committee opining on whether Johnson misled Parliament, a resigning offence, will now seem somewhat ‘after the event’ by the Autumn.
It is easy to say ‘I told you so’ but many people, often good, moderate Tories, consistently warned of the dangers of a Johnson premiership, and their predictions have comprehensively come true.
As for the future of the Tory Party, likely leadership candidates are Tom Tugendhat, Liz Truss, Nadim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Penny Mordant and possibly Ben Wallace and Rishi Sunak, although the latter may well choose to leave politics. Incredibly, the Brexit obsessed Tory Party is unlikely to elect a Remainer so that possibly rules out Tom Tugendhat and Jeremy Hunt on this issue alone. Liz Truss is hugely unpopular with her colleagues and Sajid Javid doesn’t set hearts racing. The momentum is currently with Ben Wallace and particularly Nadim Zahawi but many things can change and change quickly over the coming days and weeks.
Only Keir Starmer’s mediocrity stands between the Tories and electoral annihilation. What a fall from grace for a Party that won an 80 seat majority just three years ago. It is down to one man’s well trailed flaws which have been brutally exposed once in office.
Inside Right Politics 