Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Sunak, Javid Quit British Cabinet
Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson received the resignations of both his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid. The two came just minutes apart, and as coincidence requires a lot of planning, it is clear that they have coordinated their moves. Both want the keys to Number 10 Downing Street for himself. Whether they have delivered a fatal blow has yet to be seen. A cabinet meeting later today may include a formal call for Mr. Johnson to resign. However, it is also possible that the PM will last a couple more weeks when the House will rise for August holidays. For now, the Prime Minister is on deathwatch.
The government has been snakebit ever since the Partygate scandal broke, in which staff at Number 10 and the PM himself, broke the social distancing rules by throwing parties in the garden of the official residence as well as within it. Usually, the Tories can get away with "one law for thee and another for me," but this time, the people were suffering too much. Saying good-bye to a dying granny by videochat is bad enough. To have one\'s leaders ignoring the same rules the rest had to follow in so blatant a way is much worse.
The latest problem, though, is not Covid related. Instead, Tory Whip Chris Pincher has succumbed to the pressure from charges he is a serial groper. At first the PM said he knew nothing about it. Now, it turns out he had been briefed. So, man overboard, but Mr. Johnson\'s judgment is again in question. Having had the official story about Mr. Pincher evolve on an hourly basis, Messrs. Sunak and Javid have quit.
Mr. Johnson cannot face another leadership challenge from the backbenches for almost a year, having survived a Tory-party no-confidence vote a few weeks back. Party rules would have to be changed, and there are procedural issues that would need to be overcome to do this. Can it be done by the August recess? It is hard to say. When the party wants to act quickly, it can. It may or may not want to right now.
Alternatively, and this appears to be happening this afternoon, a delegation of MPs will visit him to say it is time to leave. The PM, in this scenario, sets a date for his orderly departure, and the leadership fight begins. This is not in Mr. Johnson\'s nature.
Another option would be for Mr. Johnson to read the writing on the wall and go voluntarily while the leadership fight happens under an acting PM. This, too, is alien to the nature of Mr. Johnson.
The most likely scenario is that nothing happens right now. The PM will hold the line on the situation until the recess. When the media silly season that is about to begin runs its course, everyone will have moved on, until the next time Boris Johnson errs. Then, there will be more departures. Eventually, he will run out of people willing to be in his cabinet.
This journal believes that he will either resign this week, or he will last through to party conference season, where things will be make or break for him.
© Copyright 2022 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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