Which point seems to be coming fast…
Probably going to hang on until there is literally nobody left willing to join his cabinet. Larry the Downing Street cat as Foreign Secretary?
Cats are too smart to have that sort of blind loyalty.
I’m given to understand that the cat submitted its resignation earlier this evening.
The latest count is 43 resignations and one sacking (Gove) which must be some kind of record.
I guess they will be working through the night at No 10 trying to find and appoint replacements.
On Monday the 1922 committee will meet and may vote for rule change for the Conservative party to bring forward a vote of confidence.
The next few days are going to be a very intense time as the Conservatives party tries to persuade Johnson to go.
Question about British administration: how much does filling the empty positions matter? For comparison, in the U.S., there’s some things only a Congressionally confirmed Secretary can do that neither the President nor an Acting Secretary can.
Yes it matters for these senior posts at the heart of the executive. Prime Ministers regularly reshuffle ministers around to different roles with a few phone calls.
The 300 of so public bodies that report to various departments are another matter. There is a ministerial code and appointments overseen by a senior Civil Servant.
Still, these senior posts are part-time positions–they remain MPs with all the duties that entails and on average they only spend a little over a year in the position.
I believe there may be (but I don’t really know) some functions legally tied to whether the post is designated as a “Secretary of State”, but the main problem would be that normal government business just grinds to a halt. By custom, convention and ingrained democratic principle, non-partisan civil servants can’t present and defend draft legislation in Parliament, whether it’s a contentious major reform or tidying up some minor discrepancy or outdated provision. All sorts of policy development work and administrative implementation depends on ministerial sign-off at various stages, not to mention general public representation of the government.
(“Ministerial” here means two or sometimes three levels of political appointment in any given department - the numbers of resignations from the existing lower ranks is such that BJ would find it hard to promote into empty Cabinet seats, and the already demonstrated loss of support on the back benches means it’ll be next to impossible to fill the junior minister vacancies).
BBC reporting he has agreed to “stand down”. But not til autumn…
Boris Johnson has resigned. He now needs a push to get him out of 10 Downing Street.
Immediately out as party leader, but staying on as PM until autumn? Is that even workable?
Hope not, I shudder to think what sort of damage the likes of Nadine Dorris will do in the remaining weeks with nothing to lose.
So it’s official now…
What a nasty, spiteful resignation speech that was. “I had a hopeful agenda, but the herd decided to run away from me. How sad.”
He really is an enormous sack of shit.
Boris Johnson would still be Prime Minister if only Mike Pence had the courage to do what needed to be done.
I blame Walpole.
I’m envisioning David Cameron somewhere tonight, sitting in an arm chair, stroking a white cat while sipping a glass of brandy and muttering “Excellent” a la Mr. Burns.
While Teresa May, in her home, chortles and breaks out the champagne.
