When Will It All Go Wrong For The Tories/ Johnson?

[nw1]

Ah good the new education minister is on record with saying schools and unis shouldn't be allowed to stop talks by Holocaust deniers. Brilliant.

What, seriously????

 

[Class 466]

Government Resignations over last 24 hours upto 11:30am:

Cabinet ministers

• Rishi Sunak - chancellor
• Sajid Javid - health secretary

Ministers

• Will Quince - minister for children and families
• Alex Chalk - solicitor general
• Robin Walker - School Standards
• John Glen - Economic Secretary to the Treasury
• Victoria Atkins - Prisons and Probation

Ministerial aides

• Laura Trott - parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Transport secretary
• Jonathan Gullis - PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary
• Saqib Bhatti - PPS to the Health secretary
• Nicola Richards - PPS to the Department for Transport
• Virginia Crosbie - PPS at the Welsh office
• Felicity Buchan - PPS Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Others

• Bim Afolami - vice-chair of the Conservative Party
• Theo Clarke - trade envoy to Kenya
• Andrew Murrison - trade envoy to Morocco
• Robert Halfron - Chair education select committee (Letter of no-confidence)
• Lee Anderson MP - Letter of no confidence
• Tom Hunt MP - Letter of no confidence

Edit:
11:32 another Minister resigned and added

Add Victoria Atkins to this now!

 

[skyhigh]

Add Victoria Atkins to this now!

She's already on there!

 

[nlogax]

Anyone thinking there might be some moves from the Tory benches around midday?

Some Tory MPs potentially going for a pre-PMQs stroll to investigate the other side of the chamber? That'd be a fun watch.

 

[Class 466]

She's already on there!

Ignore me, struggling to keep up with this mess

 

[jfollows]

Jason Groves at The Mail (https://twitter.com/JasonGroves1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1544633892338110464|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/jul/06/boris-johnson-rishi-sunak-sajid-javid-resignations-uk-politics-live-latest; no longer a Boris supporting paper!) reports that the 1922 Committee is drawing up plans for leadership hustings to start next week.

Jason Groves
@JasonGroves1
·
10m

Tory source says 1922 Committee drawing up contingency plans for leadership hustings to start as soon as Monday. Would allow time to complete run-off before recess, with Tory members voting on the final two in August. But would require the PM to be gone this week...

 

[oldman]

I thought the best thing to do was to settle up these little local difficulties and then turn to the wider vision ...

Harold Macmillan, following the resignation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and others 1958.

In Macmillan's case the wider vision was the Commonwealth, which he actually had - winds of change and all that. I don't think Johnson has a wider vision.

 

[Typhoon]

Government Resignations over last 24 hours upto 11:30am:

Cabinet ministers

• Rishi Sunak - chancellor
• Sajid Javid - health secretary

Ministers

• Will Quince - minister for children and families
• Alex Chalk - solicitor general
• Robin Walker - School Standards
• John Glen - Economic Secretary to the Treasury
• Victoria Atkins - Prisons and Probation

Ministerial aides

• Laura Trott - parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Transport secretary
• Jonathan Gullis - PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary
• Saqib Bhatti - PPS to the Health secretary
• Nicola Richards - PPS to the Department for Transport
• Virginia Crosbie - PPS at the Welsh office
• Felicity Buchan - PPS Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Others

• Bim Afolami - vice-chair of the Conservative Party
• Theo Clarke - trade envoy to Kenya
• Andrew Murrison - trade envoy to Morocco
• Robert Halfron - Chair education select committee (Letter of no-confidence)
• Lee Anderson MP - Letter of no confidence
• Tom Hunt MP - Letter of no confidence

Edit:
11:32 another Minister resigned and added

Mr Quince is actually listed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State on the DfE website (they haven't caught up) so I fear you have over-promoted him. The Department are now three ministers down, Transport two. Glen is a long serving minister at the Treasury and would have been a useful assistant to Zahawi. It is the ministers that will be the loss - a sound minister can get a department out of trouble, and there are too many at the moment who are make-weights. Both Atkins and Walker have fathers who were in parliament under Thatcher and Major, traditional 'do the right thing' Tories. Maybe some of that has rubbed off?

In the quote in #4086, the tweet states

But would require the PM to be gone this week...

Surely an incentive for him to stick around?

 

[dosxuk]

Raab looking very uncomfortable on the front bench at PMQ's today. Dorries still looking on adoringly.

 

[jfollows]

It seems strange and a bit pathetic that Boris Johnson's riposte to Keir Starmer's charges is to talk about the voting record of Labour MPs - they voted against Brexit, against independent nuclear deterrence, etc. They, in turn, are more than happy to "own up" to their voting records. So his response to questions about his personal morality and integrity are ones about political beliefs and voting records?

 

[Class 466]

The complete lack of jeering whenever an opposition MP speaks says a lot.

 

[dosxuk]

"Does the Prime Minister think there are any circumstance in which he should resign?"

Question, not coming from the Labour or SNP benches, but the Conservative member for East Worthing.

 

[brad465]

"Isn't this the first case of the sinking ship fleeing the rats?"

"The charge of the lightweight brigade."

Starmer, PMQs

 

[DanNCL]

David Davis has just repeated his call for Boris to resign

 

[skyhigh]

Very odd response from Johnson towards a Conservative MP's question just now - "There is a very simple reason that they want me out, and that is because they know that otherwise we are going to get on, deliver our mandate and win another general election"

 

[DarloRich]

Sajid David managed to cock up the one good line in his resignation speech!

 

[brad465]

What's worth remembering here is that there were many calls to move on from Partygate in order to get on with business like helping Ukraine and tackling the cost of living. Johnson is now being attacked for his role in a scandal that is not Partygate, which we appear to have moved on from. There is no way that any important Government business can be completed with Johnson in place, because he is so riddled with scandals that moving on from one scandal merely leads to another scandal. Anyone who wants to move onto tackling important issues like the aforementioned ones should demand Johnson goes and is replaced by someone far less tainted.

 

[WatcherZero]

Two more resignations during PMQ's

Housing Minister Stuart Andrew
Environment Minister Jo Churchill

 

[nlogax]

Very odd response from Johnson towards a Conservative MP's question just now - "There is a very simple reason that they want me out, and that is because they know that otherwise we are going to get on, deliver our mandate and win another general election"

It's standard from him. Johnson lives in a parallel universe, the same universe which was identified by his classics tutor while he was at Eton in 1982.

"Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies. [He] sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the school for the next half).

"I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else."

 

[FrodshamJnct]

Sajid David managed to cock up the one good line in his resignation speech!

Very embarrassing wasn’t it.

 

[Butts]

Jeremy Hunt must be rubbing his hands with glee at all this ?

 

[Howardh]

I'm going out this afternoon. Odds on Johnson still being there when I return at 11pm??

 

[brad465]

Resignations under Johnson are now as high as the total number in Thatcher's tenure (although not as high as May unsurprisingly):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-62048657

How resignations under Boris Johnson compare​

The resignations from Boris Johnson's government are coming thick and fast - but how do the numbers compare to those under previous prime ministers?
Sometimes it's just easier to picture it - so take a look at the graph below.

 

[Cowley]

It's standard from him. Johnson lives in a parallel universe, the same universe which was identified by his classics tutor while he was at Eton in 1982.

Blimey. That’s some well written analysis!

 

[Gloster]

I wouldn't put it past him to call an election out of spite tbh

There is the Lascelles Principle which allows the sovereign to refuse to allow an election to be called if a) Parliament is still capable of doing its job, and b) if another PM could be found who would be able to lead the country for a reasonable period. Ironically, it was put into abeyance by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011, but is back in force following Johnson’s Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, which has only been in force for just over three months. (I would love to see the Queen’s face when she tells Johnson that he can’t have an election, however much he wants it.)

 

[nw1]

It seems strange and a bit pathetic that Boris Johnson's riposte to Keir Starmer's charges is to talk about the voting record of Labour MPs - they voted against Brexit, against independent nuclear deterrence, etc. They, in turn, are more than happy to "own up" to their voting records. So his response to questions about his personal morality and integrity are ones about political beliefs and voting records?

I don't think you can claim the moral high ground by saying that opposition MPs were wrong to vote against Brexit, for starters. Brexit - in its entirety - was a Tory invention from start to finish, so one could say that it would be morally more correct for Labour MPs (excepting those who actually believed in Brexit) to vote against, as that's what an opposition is supposed to do.

If Johnson is using that as a stick to bash Labour with, it seems to show he's out of ideas and getting desperate.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I don't think you can claim the moral high ground by saying that opposition MPs were wrong to vote against Brexit, for starters. Brexit - in its entirety - was a Tory invention from start to finish, so one could say that it would be morally more correct for Labour MPs (excepting those who actually believed in Brexit) to vote against, as that's what an opposition is supposed to do.

If Johnson is using that as a stick to bash Labour with, it seems to show he's out of ideas and getting desperate.

In the history of British governments, has "the moral high ground" ever been high on the agenda of the party in power.?

 

[WatcherZero]

Three more PPS have resigned: David Johnson, Claire Coutinho and Selaine Saxby, and another letter of no confidence

Cabinet ministers

• Rishi Sunak - chancellor
• Sajid Javid - health secretary

Ministers

• Will Quince - minister for children and families
• Alex Chalk - solicitor general
• John Glen - Treasury minister
• Victoria Atkins - Justice minister
• Robin Walker - Education minister
• Jo Churchill - Defra minister
• Stuart Andrew - Housing minister

Ministerial aides

• Laura Trott - parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Transport secretary
• Jonathan Gullis - PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary
• Saqib Bhatti - PPS to the Health secretary
• Nicola Richards - PPS to the Department for Transport
• Virginia Crosbie - PPS at the Welsh office
• Felicity Buchan - PPS at the Business Department
• David Johnson - PPS at the Treasury
• Claire Coutinho - PPS in Education
• Selaine Saxby - PPS at the Treasury

Others

• Bim Afolami - vice-chair of the Conservative Party
• Theo Clarke - trade envoy to Kenya
• Andrew Murrison - trade envoy to Morocco
• Robert Halfron MP - Chair education select committee: Letter of no-confidence
• Lee Anderson MP - Letter of no confidence
• Tom Hunt MP - Letter of no confidence
• Robert Jenrick MP - Letter of no confidence
• Kate Griffiths MP - Letter of no confidence

17.5% of the 120 members of the Government frontbench have resigned in the last 24 hours.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Three more PPS have resigned: David Johnson, Claire Coutinho and Selaine Saxby, and another letter of no confidence

Cabinet ministers

• Rishi Sunak - chancellor
• Sajid Javid - health secretary

Ministers

• Will Quince - minister for children and families
• Alex Chalk - solicitor general
• John Glen - Treasury minister
• Victoria Atkins - Justice minister
• Robin Walker - Education minister
• Jo Churchill - Defra minister
• Stuart Andrew - Housing minister

Ministerial aides

• Laura Trott - parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Transport secretary
• Jonathan Gullis - PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary
• Saqib Bhatti - PPS to the Health secretary
• Nicola Richards - PPS to the Department for Transport
• Virginia Crosbie - PPS at the Welsh office
• Felicity Buchan - PPS at the Business Department
• David Johnson - PPS at the Treasury
• Claire Coutinho - PPS in Education
• Selaine Saxby - PPS at the Treasury

Others

• Bim Afolami - vice-chair of the Conservative Party
• Theo Clarke - trade envoy to Kenya
• Andrew Murrison - trade envoy to Morocco
• Robert Halfron MP - Chair education select committee: Letter of no-confidence
• Lee Anderson MP - Letter of no confidence
• Tom Hunt MP - Letter of no confidence
• Robert Jenrick MP - Letter of no confidence

17.5% of the 120 members of the Government have resigned in the last 24 hours.

How many of the major Ministerial posts above are still to be filled?

 

[Busaholic]

Despite some reports, Michael Gove hasn't yet signalled continued support and had an unexplained absence from the Commons.