The sun first appeared on July 7, and the British Conservative Party's political earthquake has not stopped.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior government officials continue to "jump ship", and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi, who took office just two days ago, also publicly called for Johnson to step down.
Johnson, who thinks he is "above 10,000 people", is only one of the 650 members of the House of Commons. Under the pressure of his peers, the prime minister who lost the support of the majority of the parliament cannot avoid the fate of resigning and stepping down.
Johnson wants to stay on as interim prime minister until the Conservative Party elects its next leader this autumn.
However, there is strong opposition within the party.
But at a time when 70% of Britons and more than 50% of Conservative voters believe that Johnson should step down, whether he stays in office or not, he will also be dead.
At this point, one has to ask the question: If not Johnson, who else?
In 2019, after former Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation, Johnson was almost a popular candidate as a Eurosceptic representative.
The leadership election is just a passing game.
Today's situation is completely different.
There is absolutely no clear candidate to replace Johnson in the Conservative Party.
In the UK facing high inflation, the Russian-Ukrainian war, a wave of strikes in virtually everything from railway workers to criminal lawyers, a possible winter shortage of energy supplies, Scotland’s re-independence referendum, unresolved anarchy in Northern Ireland, UK At a time when European relations have fallen further into a series of crises, such as further breakdown, the British will not be willing to call for an early election.
The opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has been in office for two years, but he still encounters the problem that the public does not know who he is.
Therefore, whether in the country or the opposition, the United Kingdom will also enter a melee chaos in the Central Plains.
And this mess will not necessarily be resolved by the Conservative Party electing a new leader.
As Johnson has faced pressure to step down since the beginning of the year, discussions about his successor have been raging for months.
As of today, it is clear that these discussions have not come to fruition.
three-headed horse
In the past, the top horse was
former Finance Minister
Rishi Sunak.
His money distribution policy during the epidemic made him very popular for a time, and his insistence on maintaining the government's fiscal balance is also in line with the traditional fiscal philosophy of the Conservative Party.
However, since the beginning of this year, people's livelihood expenditure in the UK has been under severe pressure. Xin Weicheng's cautious fiscal policy has caused him to delay the introduction of the policy of giving money to the people. His wealthy Indian wife has also been caught in a tax avoidance scandal. fine.
Its popularity has thus come under severe pressure.
Xin Weicheng: The picture shows the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer Xin Weicheng in Downing Street, London, on May 26, 2022.
(Getty)
Xin Weicheng is known for his ability in managing finances, but he himself may have lost his interest in his political career in the UK, and may abandon politics and go into business and re-enter the financial world.
In his July 5 resignation letter, he suggested that this could be his last official position.
Another favorite is
Foreign Secretary
Liz Truss, who has made many appearances due to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
She is a staunch Brexit supporter, with strong support among the grassroots of the Conservative Party.
All along, she has also intentionally created the image of "the next prime minister", making herself a "Mrs Thatcher 2.0".
However, its awareness and support among the general public are very low.
When a media interview earlier mentioned that she became prime minister, some people's immediate reaction was "are you kidding me?"
At this moment, Zhuo Huisi happened to be in Indonesia to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, and is now rushing back to the UK.
The picture shows that on April 5th, British Foreign Secretary Zhuo Huisi went to Poland to speak at a press conference.
(AP)
A string of other recent Conservative candidates have also been on the list of hotspots to succeed Johnson as it becomes clear that Johnson is out of phase.
Among them, it is worth noting that Sajid Javid, the former health minister who resigned together with Xin Weicheng on July 5.
Javid is descended from Pakistani immigrants, his father is a bus driver, and he is a mainstream conservative politician with a grassroots background.
He has always been a Brexiteer. When Johnson first took office, he fell out with Dominic Cummings, the brain behind the 2016 Brexit referendum, and resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer after only six months in office.
But then Johnson himself turned against Cummings and reinstated Javid, who has a reputation for being able, as health secretary.
Javid, who failed to run for party leadership twice in 2016 and 2019, was reinstated by Johnson and showed his political loyalty to Johnson, and to a certain extent, he served as his political fighter until he resigned on July 5.
After his resignation, Javid spoke out in a speech to Congress on July 6 about the prospects of the Conservative Party, saying people had had enough of Johnson ("enough is enough") and calling on his party to make a difficult choice to kick Johnson out.
From the signs that Johnson administration officials continued to jump ship after his speech, it can be seen that Javid has grasped the party sentiment to a certain extent.
His congressional speech can be regarded as the shooting sound of his bid for party leader.
In the regular Q&A session with the Prime Minister of the House of Commons on July 6, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary who just resigned, talked about the way forward for the Conservative Party, called on party members to make "difficult decisions", and appeared to be competing for the next term. Party leader's intention.
(AP)
In addition to Xin Weicheng, Zhuo Huisi, and Ja Weide, who are more familiar to ordinary British people, there are still a series of popular candidates for the next prime minister in the Conservative Party.
There are so many so-called "hot"
One is former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt.
She entered Parliament in 2010 and also served as Secretary of State for International Development and Secretary of Defense during Theresa May.
She is a Brexiteer in the party, but has good relations with the moderates in the party, and her political future is generally optimistic about the Conservatives.
However, her popularity among the public is extremely low.
The second is Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign minister in Theresa May who speaks Japanese.
He can be regarded as a representative of the moderates of the Conservative Party. He fought against Johnson in the 2019 leadership election, and finally lost only one-third of the votes.
In today's Conservative Party, Hou Junwei has a calm image, but his past of staying in Europe seems to have fallen behind the times.
The third is Michael Gove, the former Leveling Up minister who was "furiously fired" by Johnson on July 6.
Gao Wenhao is a staunch Brexiteer, but he is one of the few capable people. In 2016, he stabbed Johnson in the back, causing the latter to lose the opportunity to worship him. Later, he reconnected with Johnson and won the "upgrade" of his main policy. "Opportunities in the UK's backward regions.
When he privately dismissed Johnson on July 6, he said he would not run for party leadership.
The fourth is Nadhim Zahawi, the former education minister who was just appointed as finance minister on July 5.
Zha Xueli is one of the founders of the market research company YouGov. He joined Congress in 2010, and in 2020, he led the vaccination program for the new crown vaccine, and has a reputation for being able.
Cha Xueli seems to represent the Conservative Party's big-government turn, unlike Xin Weicheng, who carries a "Thatcher Doctrine" legacy, the same fiscal orientation as Johnson's at the moment.
If Cha Xueli "goes to the next level", it would represent a continuation of Johnson's fiscal policy.
The remaining candidates include: Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, who is tough on China, and Ben Wallace, the defense secretary.
Since the threshold for becoming a "hot" is currently very low, various figures in the Conservative Party are also eager to try it.
Backbencher Steve Baker, who in recent months has become Johnson's main opposition voice among eurosceptics, has now signaled he would be actively considering a run for the party leadership.
Attorney General Suella Braverman also said she would run.
Under such a situation of "weak" competition, the Conservative Party will encounter a heated intra-party factional struggle for several months in the future, which will obviously hinder the British government's response to various social, economic, diplomatic and defense crises. Ability.
The prestige of the elected prime minister will also be far less than that of Johnson, who led the Conservative Party to a big victory in 2019; as the general election expected to be held in 2024 approaches, the competition within the party will be difficult to stop.
Labour's Shi Jixian, long before Johnson's decision to resign, began firing at other key Conservative politicians, arguing that they had been pampering Johnson, calling them a series of "nodding dogs".
After Johnson decided to resign, he said the UK must change government, not just a Conservative leader.
It can be seen that Shi Jixian, who has just launched the Brexit New Deal plan recently, has entered the campaign mode to prepare for the next general election. In the future, he will put more pressure on the next Prime Minister and completely bid farewell to his will to be a constructive opposition under the epidemic.
After Johnson leaves, the competition in the British political arena will not stop because the Conservative Party elects a new leader and a new prime minister, but will continue until the next general election.
Fierce partisan struggles and various internal and external challenges facing the UK will at the same time dominate the British political repertoire for the next two years.
Johnson resigns as prime minister of the UK, politicians play politics and the country is in a "democratic crisis". Senior cabinet officials jumped ship to force the British constitution. It was decided early that Johnson could not stay dead. Johnson's party mates who played "Wolf is coming" shouted and couldn't stand it