Boris Johnson Resigns as UK Prime Minister

Boris Johnson has just resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The 58-year-old politician had been hearing calls for his resignation in the weeks leading up to today’s announcement. In the past 48 hours, more than 50 government staff resigned in the lead-up to Boris‘ announcement, calling for him to resign as well.

Click inside to read his speech…

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister. I have agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader will begin now. The timetable will be announced next week and I have today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will until a new leader is in place,” he said in his resignation speech.

“So I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019 – many of them voting Conservative for the first time – thank you for that incredible mandate. The biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979,” he continued.

Johnson added, “The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.”

He continued, “Of course I am immensely proud of the achievements of this Government from getting Brexit done, to settling our relations with the Continent for over half a century, reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in Parliament, getting us all through the pandemic, delivering the fastest vaccine roll-out in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown and – in the last few months – leading the West in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.”

Johnson‘s reign has been hit with many scandals. One scandal was on a more personal level and had to do with his children.