Pressure Rises: Boris Johnson Government Minister Resigns

After two top ministers had already resigned from the British government on Tuesday, Minister for Children and Families Will Quince also announced his departure on Wednesday morning.

 

The pressure is thus mounting on Boris Johnson, whose premiership is hanging by a thread. The weekly question time in the British House of Commons is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

The dismissal is striking: Quince defended Johnson in several interviews on Monday, but now says that he is resigning because he had received “wrong information from Downing Street (Johnson’s cabinet, ed.)”.

Quince writes on Twitter that he had received “categorical confirmation” from Downing Street that Johnson was unaware of allegations against Chris Pincher, an MP charged with transgression, when he appointed him deputy chief whip in the British House of Commons. Later in the day, however, it was revealed that Johnson was indeed aware. The prime minister has already apologized for this, saying that he had “forgotten”.

Laura Trott had also resigned earlier in the day, she was head of the cabinet at the Ministry of Transport. “Trust is paramount in politics, and always should be. But unfortunately, that has been lost in recent months,” she said in her resignation letter.

On Tuesday, British Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced their resignations. The two heavyweights made their resignation letters public on Twitter, not sparing their criticism of BoJo. They no longer considered him competent and said they had lost confidence in him.

The crisis in the Conservative Party is thus complete, after previous accusations of sexual misconduct and rape against Tories members and the so-called ‘Partygate’ scandal, but Johnson himself still wants to continue. That is not to the liking of several party members, who believe that a new confidence vote should be taken. Before that, the rules would have to be adjusted first, because the prime minister survived such a vote only a month ago. He was then supported by 59 percent of his party members.

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