Boris Johnson came, partied, had to step down. Now what?

As his ministers were resigning in a bunch, Boris Johnson was still defiant and wanted to cling on to power. But all of it ended on Thursday (7 July) as he resigned as the leader of Britain's Conservative party after months of ethics scandals and revolt from within the party.

About 50 cabinet secretaries, ministers and lower-level officials quit the government over the past few days because of the latest scandals in the government.

The mass resignations stalled the business of some parliamentary committees because there were no ministers available to speak on the government's behalf, reported AP.

In a speech outside 10 Downing Street, Johnson said he would stay on until his successor is found.

'It is clearly now the will of the Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of the party and therefore, a new prime minister,' he said.

WHY HE RESIGNED

• Johnson decided to step down after his government was rocked by numerous scandals. He had survived a no-confidence vote last month. But the recent revelations that Johnson knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a lawmaker before he promoted the man to a senior position in his government led to further revolt from his ministers.
• Cabinet ministers from his ruling Conservative Party, including Treasury Chief Rishi Sunak, and many officials resigned, making it almost impossible for him to run the government.

• One of his closest allies, newly-appointed Treasury Chief Nadhim Zahawi publicly told him to resign for the good of the country.

THE RISE AND FALL OF BORIS JOHNSON

• Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of Britain on 24 July, 2019. He took over from Theresa May in an internal Conservative leadership contest. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 13 July 2016 to 9 July 2018. He was elected Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in May 2015. Previously he was the MP for Henley from June 2001 to June 2008.

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• After becoming the PM, Johnson called a general election that December and won the biggest Tory parliamentary majority since Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. This allowed him to finally go ahead with Brexit. The Brexit vote was done in 2016 but it finally happened under Johnson on 31 January, 2020. The UK became the only sovereign country to have left the European Union (UK).
• Johnson was criticised for his handling of the Covid situation in the country and the partygate scandal of law-breaking parties in Downing Street during the pandemic led to a no-confidence vote last month, which Johnson survived.
• He apologised to Buckingham Palace after staff held parties on the night before the funeral of Prince Philip, where Queen Elizabeth had to sit alone to comply with social-distancing requirements, reported the Wall Street Journal.

• His appointment of as a senior parliamentary official a man whom he knew had a history of allegedly making unwanted sexual advances was the final blow to his chances of continuing as the PM as over 50 ministers and officials decided to quit and forcing him to finally resign.

WHAT'S NEXT?

• Johnson is still the prime minister for now, but we can see a new Britain PM soon. All Conservative lawmakers are now eligible to run for the top post and party officials could open the nominations within hours.

• His predecessor, Theresa May, remained in office for more than a month between announcing her resignation and the selection of Johnson as the new PM.

HOW WILL BE THE NEXT PM ELECTED?

• Candidates putting themselves forward for the leadership must be nominated by two other Conservative lawmakers.Conservative lawmakers will then hold several rounds of votes. Each time they are asked to vote for their favoured candidate in a secret ballot, and the person with the fewest votes is eliminated, reported Reuters.

• This process is repeated until there are two candidates remaining. The final two candidates will be put to a vote of the full party membership across the country, which is about 180,000 people, by postal ballot. That process is expected to take several weeks, reported AP.
• The winner of the vote will become both Conservative leader and the prime minister.

WHO COULD BECOME THE NEXT PM?

• Former Treasury Chief Rishi Sunak is being seen as a front-runner so far but he hasn't officially announced anything yet. He won praise for rescue packages during Covid, including an employment programme.

• Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed as Sunak's successor is also seen as a contender and he has also said that it would be a 'privilege' to be prime minister.
• The list of contenders also includes Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Attorney General Suella Braverman and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.