LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resigning, several media outlets including the BBC reported on Thursday.
“The Prime Minister will make a statement to the country today,” a spokesperson said.
Johnson had been hanging onto power despite the resignation of a string of his top ministers. On Thursday the man he appointed as finance minister less than 48 hours earlier publicly urged Johnson to go.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also called on Johnson to quit but said he would stay in his role to protect national security.
British education minister Michelle Donelan also resigned from government less than 48 hours after she was appointed, saying it was the only way to force the hand of Johnson to quit.
“I see no way that you can continue in post, but without a formal mechanism to remove you it seems that the only way that this is… possible is for those of us who remain in Cabinet to force your hand,” Donelan wrote in a resignation letter, saying she had “pleaded” with Johnson on Wednesday to resign.
“You have put us in an impossible situation… as someone who values integrity above all else, I have no choice.”
More than 50 ministers have quit the government in less than 48 hours, saying Johnson was not fit to be in charge after a series of scandals, while dozens in his Conservative Party are in open revolt.
A delegation of senior ministers and a senior figure representing Conservative lawmakers who are not in government went to Downing Street on Wednesday evening to tell Johnson he needed to go and to make a dignified exit.
But he refused to budge, and even sacked Michael Gove, one of his most effective ministers who, according to media reports, had told the British leader he should quit.
“I am not going to step down,” Johnson told a parliamentary committee. The Sun newspaper quoted an ally of the prime minister as saying that rebels in his party would “have to dip their hands in blood” if they wanted to get rid of him.
Johnson has suggested that he had a mandate to govern from the almost 14 million voters who voted for the Conservatives in December 2019 when he swept to power with a promise to sort out Britain’s exit from the European Union after years of bitter wrangling.
He says it would not be responsible to walk away from the job in the middle of an economic crisis and war in Europe. Johnson has been a visible supporter of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in late February.
He has also refused to say if he would try to stay in the job even if he lost a confidence vote from his own lawmakers. That could come next week if they agree to change the party’s rules, which only allow one such challenge a year. He narrowly won a similar vote last month.
Opposition lawmakers said the chaos meant government could not function. Committees due to meet on Thursday to scrutinize legislation, including the National Security Bill, were being canceled because there was no minister available.
