This BBC article, which I found to be pretty informative about the whole process, notes this:
Odds keep changing and there’ve been multiple frontrunners over the last 24 hours: https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-prime-minister
None clear at the moment. The papers all have about ten people in the running (undeclared). Rumours that Sunak has already set up a campaign office, but I’m not sure how popular he is with tories right now. Liz Truss will try for it but honestly, if they vote her in, there’s no hope for the rest of us. Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary, has avoided most of the squabbling and scandal, and has had a prominent and successful role in the whole Ukraine thing.
There’s a lot of chattering about Penny Mordaunt, who seems to have been on the right side of scandals, and is a Brexiteer (more’s the pity, but the party faithful will like her for it). She doesn’t seem mad or stupid, so there’s that.
The Guardian has their own rundown of potentials.
The Attorney General has said she will run:
Boris’s literature teacher at Eton saw it all coming:
Sky News is reporting that Gove isn’t running.
Daily Mirror is saying that Rishi Sunak has set up a temporary leadership campaign office in a Westminster hotel.
Theresa May’s recent tweet is one for the ZING! file.
Yes, a link to a video… you don’t see it? I do…
But that’s trivially easy to solve. The caretaker PM would just allow the Johnsons to continue using Chequers for the next month. Incoming PMs often allow their predecessors to stay there for a few weeks anyway; it packs them off conveniently out of the way. In the Johnsons’ case, there’s the further issue that they don’t have their own London house, as the long-suffering Marina got the house in the divorce. If that’s what it takes to evict him from No. 10 now rather than a few months hence, no one at all will object. Holding his party at Chequers as an ex-PM at the benevolence of his successor might even be considered a bit humiliating.
Most famous quote:
“We import two thirds of our cheese.
That. Is. A. Disgrace!”
Churchillian, she ain’t.
Here’s a video summary of Boris Johnson’s misdeeds:
So is he resigning as party leader only, but remains as prime minister? Until next year sometime? Or am I misunderstanding this? Has he resigned as both maybe?
Yeah, I’m a bit confused by this as well. I was under the impression that the two were essentially synonymous, that the Prime Minister served at the pleasure of the parliament, supported by the party that they lead. If they lose the support of the party, they’ve lost confidence in Parliament, and are therefore no longer Prime Minister. How would it work to have a Prime Minister who does not have the support of Parliament? Would he still be able to whip the party and bring bills to the floor? Or would he just be an ineffective lame duck, holding no real power?
Huh, and I thought his Ukraine activity would at least buy him some time. He certainly seems to have hoped so.
He wasn’t in 2016 either, until he was and thereby scuppered BJ’s chances that time. He apparently told BJ he wasn’t running when he told him to go this time. So we shall see.
Has he actually done anything for Ukraine apart from turn up and guff about how he will support them (while being fully paid off by the Russians)?
The U.K. has donated lots of military equipment to Ukraine and Ukrainian forces are currently being trained in the U.K.
I don’t think Johnson can be criticized as lacking in support for Ukraine.
Very very glad he’s resigning, but I can’t imagine either his party or the nation will tolerate him remaining as a caretaker PM for a moment longer than necessary - certainly not until October! Good Lord. Find a “safe pair of hands” to serve until the leadership election concludes; that person should agree not to be a candidate.
And although the Queen remains CINC, of course, with the Kremlin hinting at further sanctions - and even possible attacks - against those who oppose it in Ukraine, there should be no leadership vacuum at 10 Downing Street as to the British nuclear deterrent.
Nope, two different things. He has lost the confidence of his party to be their leader, but that doesn’t mean that the Tory MPs will vote to bring down their own government. They may be content to let him stay on as head of the government, while the party elects a new leader, but the government as a whole still has a majority in the Commons and thus the confidence of the Commons.
Perhaps not, but it certainly looks good to the public, and that goes a long way. But I guess it goes a lot less of a way when your party isn’t behind you.
Agreed as to letting BoJo use Chequers for his party if that gets him gone sooner, BTW.