Five additional ministers resigned from the British government on Wednesday, July 6, shortly after Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid did.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister John Glen, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice Victoria Atkins, Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department of Business, Felicity Buchan, British Minister for Children and Families Will Quince, and a lawmaker belonging to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, Laura Trott, resigned from the British government on Wednesday.
Taking to Twitter to announce his resignation, Quince said, “With great sadness and regret, I have this morning tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister after I accepted and repeated assurances on Monday to the media which have now been found to be inaccurate. I wish my successor well – it is the best job in government.”
‘CAN NO LONGER PIROUETTE AROUND OUR FRACTURED VALUES’: JUSTICE MINISTER VICTORIA ATKINS
Posting her resignation on Instagram, Victoria Atkins quit Boris Johnson’s government, citing the “casual mistreatment of Minister Will Quince and the revelations contained in Lord McDonald’s letter.”
“Values such as integrity, decency, respect and professionalism should matter to us all,” Atkins said.
“I have watched with growing concern as those values have fractured under your leadership, through Patterson, Partygate and Pincher… I can no longer pirouette around our fractured values. We can and must be better than this,” the Justice Minister said in her resignation.
ECONOMIC SECRETARY JOHN GLEN AND PPS FELICITY BUSCHAN RESIGN
Meanwhile, PPS in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Felicity Buchan and Economic secretary to the Treasury John Glen have also resigned from the government, with Glen citing a “complete lack of confidence” in Boris Johnson’s leadership.
Glen, who held the office since January 2018 and Buchan who occupied the post since September last year tweeted their resignation letters under the backdrop of multiple resignations from the Johnson government.
“Recent events concerning the handling of the appointment of the former Deputy Chief Whip, and the poor judgement you have shown, have made it impossible for me to square continued service with my conscience,” Glen said in his resignation.
Meanwhile, Buchan called the situation “untenable,” and said that PM Johnson has “lost the confidence of my constituents and me.”
She further said:
“I believe passionately in Conservative values and want to ensure that we are implementing Conservative policies without distractions. That requires fresh leadership and it requires a new vision for the country.”
‘TRUST IN POLITICS HAS BEEN LOST’: TROTT
Trott, on the other hand, took to Facebook to announce that she had stepped down from the Cabinet.
“I want to update you all, that I have resigned from my role as Parliamentary Private Secretary, to the Department of Transport,” the MP said.
She further added, “Trust in politics is – and must always be – of the utmost importance, but sadly in recent months this has been lost.”
This is the latest blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which came close on the heels of Sunak and Javid’s resignation on Tuesday.
In a tweet, Sunak said that the public rightly expects the government to be conducted “properly, competently, and seriously.” He also added that this may be his last ministerial job, and that he “believed these standards are worth fighting for.”
Javid, on the other hand, had written to Johnson, saying that the former had “lost confidence” in him.
Javid, who is a British citizen of Pakistani origin, also stated, “We (Conservative party) may not have always been popular, but we have been competent in acting in the national interest. Sadly, in the current circumstances, the public are concluding that we are now neither.”
In June this year, Johnson had successfully survived a trust vote by winning the backing of 211 out of 359 Conservative lawmakers.
The Quint