‘Judgment day’: for UK’s Boris Johnson

Britain’s Boris Johnson on Wednesday vowed to fight on against a chorus of calls for him to resign as Prime Minister, but his defiant pledge to keep going was met with derision and disregard from a growing number of his own lawmakers.

Badly wounded by the resignations of a stream of more than 20 senior colleagues and junior ministers who said he was not fit to govern, lawmakers questioned whether Johnson could fill vacancies at a time when there are calls for the government to tackle a cost-of-living crisis and support an economy heading for a sharp slowdown, possibly a recession.

Overall, it was a muted performance for a Prime Minister who sees his political fortunes tumble from a landslide election victory in 2019 to now mired in scandals and being fined by police for breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws along with a damning report published about the behaviour of officials at his Downing Street office who breached their own lockdown rules. 

Johnsons immediate fate would be decided later on Wednesday at a meeting of the so-called UK’s 1922 Committee that sets the rules for leadership confidence votes. LONDON, July 6 Reuters