Following the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Health, more than 40 high-ranking officials, including cabinet members, resigned from morning to night on July 6. Home Secretary Priti Patel, the Transport Secretary who helped Johnson count votes in the party leadership election in the past Grant Shapps and other Johnson loyalists have not yet jumped off the boat, but they have told Johnson that he is over in the party and should step down with dignity.
Even Nadhim Zahawi, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer who took office the day before, advised Johnson to resign on July 7. At the same time, Johnson's government officials continued to jump ship.
On the morning of the 7th British time, Johnson reportedly could not stand the pressure and agreed to step down.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has started skipping Johnson to criticise his potential successor in the regular Q&A with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Wednesday (July 6); former health secretary Sajid Javid has just resigned. Talking more about the way forward for the Conservative Party, calling on party members to make "difficult decisions", it seems that they are starting to compete for the next party leader.
Amid the exodus of government officials, Johnson still insists there is a "wealth of talent" willing to join office, although a loyal former official told the Guardian that a whip had called to ask if he would be willing As a half-official, he could only laugh in response: "Anyone who takes office will be a joke." Johnson's government has now become a sinking ship, and people have only the possibility of jumping to survive, never Will board the ship to seek death.
Conservative Eurosceptic Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, who once sold out Johnson in 2016 but has become a loyal minister in charge of Johnson's core country "Levelling Up" policy in recent years, went to the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday morning to persuade him privately. Johnson stepped down, declaring that he had no intention of ousting the party leader, but he was regarded by Johnson as a "venomous snake" who stabbed him in the back, and he immediately resigned.
At present, the UK faces major problems such as high inflation, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and a wave of strikes from railway personnel to criminal lawyers.
Johnson, who pledged to officials on Wednesday that he would "keep fighting", was even accused of challenging officials to resign at a time of national crisis in order to remove him, suddenly scavenging key government jobs.
Instant restructuring to advance party voting?
If we look at Johnson's party confidence vote in early June, there were only 211 votes for him and a whopping 48 votes against.
In other words, as long as 32 Conservative MPs change their minds, Johnson can be kicked out.
Under the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee's leadership confidence vote system, there is a 12-month "waiver period" after the party leader passes the vote.
Johnson persisted, and members of the committee were rumored to have heatedly debated whether the rules should be changed immediately on Wednesday afternoon, and a confidence vote should be launched immediately to drive Johnson out of Downing Street with due process.
In a regular Q&A session with Prime Ministers in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary who just resigned, talked up the path ahead for the Conservative Party, calling on party members to make "difficult decisions" and appearing to start the race for the next party leader. .
(AP)
However, due to the increasing number of officials jumping ship, it was believed that Johnson was more likely to resign due to pressure until Monday (July 11).
If Johnson is still unwilling to step down by then, the new committee members are likely to restructure immediately to "force the palace" with an early confidence vote.
From this perspective, Johnson's resignation can only be a matter of time.
According to a YouGov poll conducted at the time of the political earthquake on Wednesday, 69% of people across the UK think Johnson should step down, while only 18% support him to stay in office; 54% of Conservative voters in the 2019 election think he should Should resign, only 33% support him to stay.
Previous polling analysis showed that if a general election were held at this time, the Conservative Party would immediately lose the parliamentary majority.
British politics often pays attention to a kind of decency.
After the start of Wednesday's political earthquake, although Johnson was willing to die, the British constitutional system finally determined the fact that he had to go under "peer pressure".
SNAP POLL: Most Tory voters - and two thirds of Britons - say Boris Johnson should resign as PM
All Britons: Resign 69% / Remain 18%
2019 Con voters: Resign 54% / Remain 33%
First time more Tory voters want the PM to go than stay https://t.co/EdF2u3hW1Z pic.twitter.com/CYDcJPZRiU
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 5, 2022
Mistaking himself for being the "President" of the United Kingdom
Johnson, who has always regarded becoming the "Second Churchill" as his political ideal, failed to learn the spirit of "Ingratitude towards their great men is the mark of strong peoples".
Since leading the Conservative Party to a big victory in 2019 and "fixing Brexit" to a certain extent, Johnson has seen himself as the "president" of the United Kingdom directly elected by the people, not one of 650 members of the House of Commons - power does not belong to Parliament, Back to Downing Street.
"Johnson was elected by 14 million people in 2019" has long been the rhetoric of Johnson's supporters against the opposition in the party.
In Wednesday's turmoil, Johnson also privately declared that "millions of people just elected me two years ago, and I will fight to the end."
The problem is that while the 2019 Conservative Party victory was indeed built under the banner of Johnson's "get Brexit done", Johnson himself won only 25,351 votes in his constituency, and the number of millions is simply impossible.
Even though British politics is increasingly focused on one-party leaders, the UK adopts a parliamentary system rather than a presidential system, and the prime minister is just a small person lucky enough to have the support of a parliamentary majority.
When the prime minister mistakenly thinks he is the "elected president", it can only be a form of "self-deception".
Johnson faced questions from fellow MPs in a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
(AP)
However, behind Johnson's "presidential hallucination", he really has a trump card that can threaten Conservative MPs despite being dangerous, that is, the possibility of voluntarily dissolving Congress and calling for an early election.
And that's a power that Johnson took only a few months ago.
Distressed Queen dissolves Parliament
Johnson himself publicly made such threats to party members on Wednesday: "History tells us that the best solution to senseless political interference is to get a government empowered by popular opinion to keep working...unless people forget that." Those in the room questioned that Johnson was threatening a general election, and Johnson's response was exactly what he was trying to convey.
With a snap election now, as mentioned above, the Conservative Party is expected to suffer a severe setback and lose the parliamentary majority; and after Johnson loses party support, this will also become a Conservative election without a leader.
At the same time, there is social and economic instability in the UK, and there is the Russian-Ukrainian war outside. At this moment, the people will blame the Conservative Party for an early general election.
For lawmakers who want to avoid losing their jobs, "early elections" can be the worst nightmare.
In fact, according to the 2011 "Periodical Parliament Act", the prime minister's original powers of early elections have already been reverted to Parliament, thus avoiding similar abuse of power.
However, after Johnson came to power, he led Gao Wenhao, who was fired at the moment, to push for legislation to abolish the "Periodical Parliament Act", which not only redefines the dissolution of Parliament as a royal privilege of the Queen (that is, the power that the Prime Minister can use), but also expressly prohibits the court from intervening in the process. The referee has avoided a similar situation in which Johnson was convicted of illegally suspending Congress when he first took office.
The legislation just passed Parliament in March this year, with the Queen's Royal Assent to take effect.
The Queen's prerogative has once again become Johnson's trump card, similar to his attempt to push the UK towards a hard Brexit in 2019 during the mid-term parliamentary session.
And because of the above-mentioned new law, the Supreme Court will not become an obstacle for him at this moment.
Queen Elizabeth II of England attends a royal guard review ceremony to celebrate her 70th anniversary on the throne at Buckingham Palace on June 2, accompanied by her son, Crown Prince Charles.
(AP)
If Johnson does make an early election, Queen Elizabeth II, who is in poor health recently, is likely to be involved in a constitutional crisis again.
In the British constitution, the prime minister can act on the basis of royal prerogatives because he has the support of the sovereign parliamentary majority.
The problem is that after last month's vote of no-confidence, Johnson has long lost the majority of his parliamentary support - more than half of Conservative opposition MPs, plus opposition MPs.
Johnson is still prime minister because MPs have yet to use a formal process to remove him.
With the Congress clearly opposed to the early election, the Prime Minister who does not have the support of the parliamentary majority to use the royal privilege to conduct the early election will obviously constitute another major constitutional dispute.
When Johnson suspended parliament in 2019, there was discussion about whether the Queen should refuse to follow the advice of the Prime Minister. In the end, she decided to follow the practice of non-interference in politics. Fortunately, the Supreme Court stepped in and Johnson challenged the constitution. Attempt to fail.
Will the Queen be forced to intervene today, after the Supreme Court has been barred from intervening?
Judging from the change that Johnson was about to announce his resignation on July 7, under the collective pressure of fellow MPs in Congress, Johnson did not dare to use his power to dissolve Congress.
Moreover, in the early election, Johnson will only end in defeat, and in the end it can only be done with the Conservative Party.
Under the unwritten constitutional norms of the United Kingdom, Johnson's desperate efforts in recent months have finally ended in vain.
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