‘Boris will do whatever is best for Boris’
JOHNSON STEPS DOWN AS FOREIGN SECRETARY, BUT CALLS ARE ALSO MADE FOR HIM TO RESIGN AS UXBRIDGE MP
HILLINGDON’S Labour leader says Boris Johnson’s decision to resign as Foreign Secretary on Monday, but not over the recent vote to expand Heathrow, shows his “contempt” for local residents.
The Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP and “Leave” campaigner, stepped down from his Cabinet role because he could not support Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest proposals over Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s resignation came amid speculation there will be a leadership challenge within the Tory Party following the resignation of the Brexit Secretary David Davis at midnight last night.
When the Heathrow third runway vote took place in Parliament on June 15, it was suggested that Mr Johnson had conveniently chosen to skip the country by choosing to fly to Afghanistan to meet its deputy foreign minister.
This was despite previous promises he would lie down in front of the bulldozers if a third runway is ever built.
Following the announcement that he has now resigned - over Brexit - Hillingdon’s Labour leader Peter Curling issued a statement.
He said: “Boris Johnson has proven his contempt for local residents by choosing not to resign as Foreign Secretary over failing to vote against Heathrow expansion - and instead resigning in the interests of his own personal career.
“Boris Johnson has proved once again that he has no interest in representing others. He made the pledge about Heathrow because of its importance to this local area - not because he truly believes that a third runway is unnecessary and damaging.”
At a full council meeting last Thursday, Labour put forward a motion calling on council leader Ray Puddifoot to demand Mr Johnson resign as MP because he had failed to vote against the Heathrow plans.
Mr Puddifoot refused, saying he had urged Mr Johnson to stay in the Cabinet and continue the fight against Heathrow, as resigning would have meant the loss of a valuable Heathrow opponent.
on Monday Mr Curling said it was clear Mr Johnson cared little about this.
He said: “It seems that Boris Johnson hasn’t consulted the leader of the council on this occasion, and that Hillingdon’s voice in the Cabinet is no longer a priority.
“Boris will continue to do what is best for Boris.”
Hayes and Harlington Labour MP John McDonnell Tweeted onMonday: “We are now in a situation where there is paralysis in government. Having forced her Brexit policy through her cabinet, Theresa May now knows she hasn’t a majority to push it through Parliament and yet the Brexiteers haven’t the votes to get rid of her. No way to govern a country.”
The announcement of the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP’s shock decision to quit was made on Monday afternoon. His dramatic departure was the second resignation of a Cabinet “big beast” in less than 24 hours, after Brexit Secretary David Davis walked out late on Sunday.
In a brief statement, a Downing Street spokesman said: “This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.” It was later announced the post of Foreign Secrerary would go to former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Mr Johnson had been due to attend the Western Balkans Summit in London’s Docklands on Monday and to give a press conference at 5pm, but had failed to appear by 3pm.
Despite reports Boris Johnson had attended a Cobra briefing at the Cabinet Office, his security detail remained parked outside his official residence on Pall Mall by 2.30pm, having arrived just after 8am.
His security team included six police motorcade riders, along with a Land Rover and his official car and were left waiting on his driveway for most of the day.
Officers twice warned journalists the Foreign Secretary was about to leave, only to then say they had been told to stand by.
Mr Johnson later released a scathing denunciation of the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans, saying they would leave the UK a “colony” of the European Union.
In his resignation letter Mr Johnson said that, under Theresa May’s leadership, the UK was “heading for a semi-Brexit”, with the dream of an outward-looking global Britain “dying, suffocated by needless selfdoubt”.
Both Mr Johnson and Mr Davis had signed up on Friday to Mrs May’s blueprint for Brexit at an allday summit at Chequers which the Prime Minister believed had secured Cabinet unity behind her proposals.
But her administration was thrown into disarray within 48 hours, as first Mr Davis and then Mr Johnson said that they could not commit themselves to promote the plans under the doctrine of collective responsibility.
Mr Johnson wrote: “On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congratulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward.
“As I said then, the Government now has a song to sing.
“The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and I find they stick in the throat.
“We must have collective responsibility.
“Since I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go.”