LONDON — Boris Johnson told Cabinet colleagues he will not resign as Conservative leader and prime minister, according to an official, despite a slew of resignations on Wednesday and some of his closest allies demanding he go.
The prime minister intends to fill empty government positions potentially as soon as tonight, the official said, as Downing Street tries to show it is fighting back. A delegation of senior ministers earlier told Johnson his time was up, after the resignation of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday set in motion a dramatic 24 hours in British politics.
Johnson’s defiance threatens to trigger more resignations. But Johnson made clear throughout the day he had no intentions of stepping down, telling the House of Commons he saw his mandate as coming from voters that handed him a thumping parliamentary majority in 2019.
“The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when he’s been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going and that’s what I’ll do,” Johnson told MPs.
Johnson will be calculating he can use the next few days to rally his remaining supporters before he could face another ballot on his leadership, potentially on Tuesday.
An ally of Johnson said the prime minister would rather be dragged out, and that Brexit Opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries were supportive of him staying on. The person said that removing Johnson would mean three months of chaos as the party picks a successor.
Newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi is working on a speech promising tax cuts and deregulation, the person said.
But Johnson is still in grave danger after some big hitters in his government calling on him to go, including Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The sheer volume of resignations — around three dozen — leaves vacancies that will be hard to fill from the back benches. More than 40% of his MPs opposed him in a confidence vote last month, and many more have changed their mind since then.
That vote theoretically left him immune from another challenge by Tory MPs for a year, but the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, which organizes such ballots, could change its rules to allow another one sooner.
Earlier Wednesday, Johnson gained at least some respite when the committee decided not to change its rules immediately, instead leaving the decision to a new executive, set to be elected on Monday. That will then meet on Tuesday to decide whether to change regulations to allow them to hold another vote on Johnson’s leadership.
Johnson’s position has been in jeopardy for months amid a succession of scandals including “partygate,” which saw him become the first sitting prime minister to be fined for breaking the law in office.
But the anger of his MPS snowballed in the past week as it emerged the premier promoted an MP, Chris Pincher, to a senior government role in February despite knowing of a formal complaint into inappropriate behavior in 2019.
Pincher quit last week amid similar fresh allegations, and Johnson’s failure to come clean quickly enough about what he knew and when about Pincher’s conduct drew criticism from across the party, with Tories openly questioning the honesty and integrity of the premier and his team.
