Both Sunak and Javid ready to take the top job and have made a deal to serve as Chancellor of Exchequer if the other wins.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet, piling more pressure on the PM. If PM doesn’t quit, the party will have to force him out.
Both men quit after Johnson apologised for appointing a Tory MP to his government who had faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
Tory party vice-chair Bim Afolami quits live on TV but many in the Cabinet express support for the PM.
Along with the two aides from the civil service also resigned.
Sunak and Javid ready to take the top job
Both are high-profile MPs who are preparing for a leadership challenge after the PM resigns, which is expected to be in the next 48 hours.
They both share many things in common and have been friends for years. Rising from modest beginnings to make a fortune in investment banking, before entering politics.
It is understood from a source close to Sajid Javid, that both are ready to take the top job and have agreed that whoever wins, the other will serve as the Chancellor.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has told the BBC the PM “should do what he should have done some time ago, and resign”.
“If he doesn’t do that, the party will have to force him out.” with Sunak and Javid ready to step up.
The chancellor and health secretary have resigned from the government, saying they no longer have confidence in Boris Johnson to lead the country.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the public expected government to be conducted “properly, competently and seriously”.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid echoed this, saying the government was not “acting in the national interest”.
The resignations came within minutes of each other after the PM apologised for appointing MP Chris Pincher to a government role.
They are both vying for the top job. but paid tribute to the PM in their resignation letters.
Javid pays tribute to Boris
‘It is three years since you entered Downing Street. You will forever be credited with seeing off the threat of Corbynism, and breaking the deadlock on Brexit. You have shone a very welcome light on the regional disparities on our country, an agenda that will continue to define our politics. These are commendable legacies in unprecedented times. But the country needs a strong and principled Conservative Party, and the Party is bigger than any one individual. I served you loyally and as a friend, but we all serve the country first. When made to choose between those loyalties there can only be one answer.’
Sunak says the public are ready for the truth
‘I firmly believe the public are ready to hear that truth. Our people know that if something is too good to be true then it’s not true. They need to know that whilst there is a path to a better future, it is not an easy one. In preparation for our proposed joint speech on the economy next week, it has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different.’
The resignations – Javid and Sunak did the right thing, says, ex-Brexit minister
Former Brexit minister Lord David Frost has released a statement to say that Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid did “the right thing this evening”.
He says Boris Johnson has “huge achievements to his credit” and “a place in history for delivering Brexit and much more”.
“But it is now time to look forward,” the man who worked very closely with the prime minister before resigning at the end of last year said.
“The interests of the country, our new-found self-government, and the Conservative Party would be best served by a new leadership and a new prime minister.”
Sunak resigns as chancellor, saying government should be run 'properly, competently and seriously'#GBNews #newsoftheday #ThePM #EnoughIsEnough #Dorries #GeneralElectionNow #SajidJavid #BorisJohnson #DominicRaab #chrispincher #DowningStreet #resignnow #MichaelEllis pic.twitter.com/sbIua6ZT7D
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