In one of many greatest turnaround of political fortunes in British historical past, Boris Johnson’s time period as Prime Minister got here to a crashing halt on Thursday within the wake of unsustainable strain from inside his Cupboard because the dramatic exit of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid opened the floodgates for additional ministerial exits.
A robust cheerleader for nearer India-UK relations, Johnson will little question be remembered in New Delhi for not solely his shut friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi but additionally for pushing alongside free commerce settlement (FTA) negotiations in direction of a Diwali 2022 deadline.
“As now we have seen at Westminster, the herd intuition is highly effective and when the herd strikes, it strikes and my buddies in politics nobody is remotely indispensable and our good Darwinian system will produce one other chief, equally dedicated to taking this nation ahead by means of powerful instances,” mentioned Johnson in his resignation speech on the steps of Downing Avenue, blaming the machinations of his celebration colleagues for his exit after a brand new chief is elected.
Paradoxically, the 58-year-old Conservative Occasion MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in London since 2015 himself took cost at 10 Downing Avenue in July 2019 after spearheading an identical coup towards then incumbent, former Prime Minister Theresa Could.
The Brexiteer who served as Overseas Secretary in Theresa Could’s Cupboard had stepped down in protest towards her Brexit cope with the European Union (EU), triggering a management election throughout the Tory celebration.
His thumping mandate in that celebration vote was bolstered by the British citizens in a snap basic election in December 2019, which Johnson gained with a whopping majority on the promise to “Get Brexit Performed”.
“We’re going to energise the nation. We’re going to get Brexit completed,” Johnson declared, in his attribute bluster.
Because the face of laborious Brexit within the Conservative Occasion, Johnson pledged to get Britain out of the EU – with or with no deal. Regardless of defiance from inside his personal celebration ranks, he did confound expectations and clinched a deal for Britain’s formal exit on the finish of January 2020. That deal, nevertheless, stays mired in controversy over the Northern Eire Protocol for governing UK territory Northern Eire because it shares a border with EU member-state Eire.
“I’d now urge everybody to seek out closure and let the therapeutic start,” Johnson mentioned in his victory speech in December 2019 as he vowed to work “around the clock” to repay the belief of the voters in what he branded could be a “one-nation folks’s authorities”.
To focus on his plans past Brexit, Johnson mentioned he would use his “extraordinary” mandate to deliver the nation collectively and that he recognised the state-funded Nationwide Well being Service (NHS) was the “overwhelming precedence” of the British folks. It appeared prescient as he was quickly hit with having to cope with the COVID-19 international pandemic, which landed him within the intensive care unit (ICU) of a London NHS hospital after testing constructive for coronavirus in March 2020.
Amid widespread criticism over a perceived delay in bringing in a full lockdown to regulate the unfold of infections, Johnson appeared to have turned a nook because the nation’s COVID vaccination drive was largely hailed as a hit story. However for the previous two-time Mayor of London, controversy and criticism has by no means been too far behind – whether or not to do along with his private life and alleged extramarital affairs or his political missteps.
Essentially the most damaging political scandal he was hit with because the Prime Minister was what has now change into often called partygate, the stunning revelations of COVID lockdown law-breaching events inside Downing Avenue and different authorities places of work on the peak of the pandemic.
In addition to being fined by Scotland Yard for a birthday celebration within the Cupboard Room of Downing Avenue on June 19, 2020, the storm across the scale of illegal behaviour underneath his management refused to die down even after his repeated apologies in Parliament.
The strain ultimately resulted in a vote of no-confidence triggered by his celebration backbenchers, which he nearly survived in early June as a result of backing of his Cupboard.
Nevertheless, the proverbial celebration was lastly over inside weeks when one among his closest allies and the primary Indian-origin finance minister of the nation, Rishi Sunak, resigned by issuing a scathing assault on his management on Tuesday night. That resignation got here minutes after Well being Secretary Sajid Javid, who went on to make a blistering speech in Parliament declaring that he couldn’t go on giving Downing Avenue the “advantage of the doubt” after partygate and different scandals and was satisfied “the issue begins on the prime”.
The deadly blow got here after days of combined messages from Downing Avenue on the now-suspended former Tory Deputy Chief Whip, Chris Pincher, and ministers being briefed to defend Johnson’s determination to nominate him regardless of considerations over allegations of sexual misconduct towards him.
Johnson, a former journalist and columnist himself, would have been considerably ready for the form of vitriol that was directed his method within the UK media as revelation and revelation in latest days pointed to his misjudgment in hiring Pincher.
In the end, it proved one political misstep too far and compelled his exit from Downing Avenue – harking back to different comparable dramatic departures in latest instances of his predecessors as Tory Prime Ministers Theresa Could and David Cameron and traditionally of Margaret Thatcher.