Tories push to remove Johnson before successor picked
Boris Johnson is being urged to step down as British prime minister earlier than planned, with some Tory MPs fearing the government could remain paralysed if he remains in the job until his successor is chosen.
The controversial Conservative leader quit on Thursday night (NZ time) after just three years in the job, following the dramatic resignations of more than 50 members of his government in three days.
Johnson conceded the mass mutiny had made his position untenable but lashed out at the ‘‘herd mentality’’ of his colleagues, saying it was eccentric to change leaders when voters had given the government a ‘‘vast mandate’’ only 21⁄2 years ago.
The Conservative Party wants to settle on the final two candidates for prime minister by July 21, and decide on a new leader by September.
Contenders include Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi and his predecessor Rishi Sunak, former health secretary Sajid Javid, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Trade Minister Penny Mourdant and Attorney-General Suella Braverman, who declared her ambitions on television.
Truss has cut short her visit to the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Indonesia to return to London.
Johnson, meanwhile, will by convention remain as a caretaker prime minister while a leadership election among party members takes place and has pledged his support to his successor. It has emerged that he plans to use the prime minister’s official country residence to throw a wedding celebration later this month.
Former prime minister Sir John Major called for an ‘‘imaginative’’ response from the Conservative party in replacing Johnson, ensuring that he remains in Downing Street only long enough ‘‘to effect the smooth transition’’ of government.
Major, who led the country from 1990 to 1997, said the idea of Johnson remaining in office until October was unwise and potentially unsustainable. He argued deputy prime minister Dominic Raab should be promoted to a caretaker role.
‘‘The interests of the country must be given priority,’’ Major said. ‘‘With so many long-term and critical issues before us, an imaginative response – even at the risk of some bruised feelings within the party – is most definitely in the national interest.’’
Former science minister George Freeman, who resigned from the government on Thursday morning, also called for a caretaker PM to be installed.
He said it was ‘‘difficult’’ to see how Johnson would be able to ‘‘put together a government that next week will escape from the insecurity and chaos we’ve seen this week’’.
‘‘I just worry that he isn’t going to be able to bring the stability that we need. He’s got a chancellor who’s already said he doesn’t have any confidence in him and two or three other members of the cabinet,’’ he told Sky News.
‘‘The attorney-general is outwardly campaigning for his job. It’s just not a credible way to form a government.’’
Sir Bob Neill, the chairman of the Justice Select Committee, said Johnson must leave Downing St ‘‘sooner rather than later’’.
‘‘I, personally, think that he should go sooner than waiting until October precisely because if this is about integrity and trust, then that is not going to change between now and October and the damage is done there,’’ he told Sky News.
Johnson tried to allay fears that he would be an interventionist interim leader.
A Downing St statement said Johnson ‘‘made clear the government would not seek to implement new policies or make major changes of direction, rather it would focus on delivering the agenda on which the government was elected’’.