Embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Thursday that he will resign once a successor is chosen. Johnson won a confidence vote in June, facing that challenge to his leadership following reports of lockdown parties and other widespread defiance of his own government’s COVID-19 guidelines at 10 Downing Street.
Though Johnson survived that vote, and insisted it “renews the PM's mandate,” less than a month later he faced an even bigger rebellion within the Conservative Party, with anger at his handling of sexual misconduct allegations against a senior lawmaker in the party.
Johnson’s resignation came after dozens of members of Parliament resigned from their roles in his government, including finance and education ministers he had appointed only 36 hours earlier after the resignation of their predecessors. In his resignation announcement, Johnson said it was “clearly now the will” of his party that he step down. Which seems like something of an understatement. Johnson also laced his resignation speech with irritation at his abandonment, saying, “at Westminster the herd instinct is powerful, when the herd moves, it moves.”
Choosing Johnson’s successor will take place in two stages over the coming months, with the party’s members of Parliament first cutting the field down through a series of votes, with each round eliminating some candidates. Next, the party’s members—around 100,000 of them—will choose between the top two options.