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PA & Sophie Brownson & Nicole Goodwin

Boris Johnson has agreed to step down as Prime Minister and will resign

Boris Johnson has agreed to step down as Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister has spoken to Tory 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and agreed to stand down, with a new Tory leader set to be in place by the party conference in October, a No 10 source said.

A No 10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister will make a statement to the country today."

It comes after a string of scandals - the most recent being the news of Downing Street parties during the 2020 lockdown and the Chris Pincher fallout. On Tuesday Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid quit, with Mr Sunak saying, "the public rightly expects the Government to be conducted properly".

READ MORE: Boris Johnson clinging on after Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resign

The pressure was ramped up when it was revealed complaints had previously been made to Mr Johnson about the conduct of chief whip Chris Pincher, who quit last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members' club.

The Prime Minister acknowledged he should have sacked Mr Pincher when he was told about the claims against him in 2019, when he was a Foreign Office minister, but instead Mr Johnson went on to appoint him to other Government roles.

Asked if that was an error, Mr Johnson said: "I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. In hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do."

The resignations of the Chancellor and Health Secretary meant that a total of 28 ministers had quit from Mr Johnson's Government since he took office. But in the hours that followed their resignations many more ministers followed suit.

Mr Sunak said “the public rightly expects the Government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, adding, “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

In an incendiary letter, Mr Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their Government” but voters now believed Mr Johnson’s administration was neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.

Boris Johnson has been facing calls to resign for misleading Parliament over rule-breaking parties in Downing Street - with one MP branding the PM a "dead man walking". The Prime Minister’s authority had already been damaged by a confidence vote which saw 41% of his MPs vote against him.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was “good news” that Boris Johnson is resigning but “we don’t need to change the Tory at the top – we need a proper change of government”.

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