Health and finance ministers resign, severe crisis in Johnson’s cabinet

Fed up with a series of scandals, two leading British ministers knocked on the door just minutes apart on Tuesday evening, a blow to increasingly weakened Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Minister British Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced on Tuesday that he was resigning from his post, explaining that he no longer had confidence in the Prime Minister. Boris Johnson After a series of scandals that tarnished the government.

“It is clear to me that the situation will not change under your leadership – so you have lost my confidence,” he said in his resignation letter posted on Twitter. At the same time, British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak also announced his resignation.

An “error” in naming

The two resignations come as Boris Johnson publicly apologized and admitted he made a mistake in appointing Chris Fincher to his government in February, who resigned last week after being accused of touching two people.

Downing Street initially denied that the deputy leader, responsible for parliamentary discipline of Conservative MPs, was aware of the old allegations targeting the “nut”.

A discredited version by a former senior official rocked Downing Street on Tuesday that the prime minister was told in 2019 of the allegations against Chris Fincher, but he named him and “forgot” them. “I think it was a mistake (appointing him to government) and I apologize for that,” Boris Johnson said after being accused of lying again.

Scandals upon scandals

The Pincher affair would have been the last straw for Messrs Javid and Sunak, who had been fed up with the scandals that had rocked the government and the Prime Minister’s entourage for months. Despite the restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, Boris Johnson is already significantly weakened by the Downing Street party affair. The case earned him a fine and a vote of no confidence from his own party, which he survived last month.

There have been several sex cases in Parliament: an unnamed MP suspected of rape was arrested and later released on bail in mid-May, and another resigned in April for viewing pornography in the House on his cellphone. And a former MP was sentenced in May. 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Regional Assembly

The defection of these two representatives resulted in regional assembly elections and heavy defeats for the conservatives. The party had already suffered its worst defeat in the local elections in May.

These scandals occur in a tense social environment, with inflation at a 40-year low and the appearance of a major strike by railway workers in particular. “The public rightly expect government to be run efficiently and seriously” and “this is why I am resigning,” Rishi Sunak wrote in a letter to Boris Johnson.

“Icing on the Cake”

For his part, Sajid Javid, 52, who served in the finance ministry before Rishi Sunak, ruled that the British had a right to expect “integrity from their government”. “However, it is clear to me that this will not happen under your leadership – so you have lost my confidence,” he wrote to the Prime Minister.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told Sky News that the Pincher affair was “icing on the cake” for the two ministers. “It’s time for Boris to go. He can let this drag on for a few hours if he wants to. But I and most of the party are adamant that he’s gone before the summer holidays: the sooner the better,” he added. “It’s clear this government is collapsing,” Labor said. Opposition Leader Keir Starmer called for new general elections.

For his part, Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg described the resignations as “minor local difficulties”. Other ministers, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, continue to support Boris Johnson, sources close to the media said. The Prime Minister has already appointed a new health minister, Steve Barclay, to take charge of government coordination so far.