November 10, 2024

Boris Johnson Has Officially Left the Office of British Prime Minister

Johnson #Johnson

Boris Johnson

A Images via Getty Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson is no longer the British prime minister, after his successor took over the position on Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was elected by the British Conservative Party on Monday. She beat out former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, becoming the third and youngest female prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Johnson, 58, announced he was stepping down as prime minister in July after losing the confidence of his cabinet. However, he opted to continue as caretaker prime minister until the party could find a replacement.

“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,” Johnson told reporters at the time.

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“I have agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week,” he continued.

Boris also shared a message for the new prime minister and the British public.

“To that new leader, whoever he or she may be, I say I will give you as much support as I can,” he said. “And to you the British public, I know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.”

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Later that month, Boris addressed lawmakers during his final session in the British Parliament, according to CNBC.

He encouraged his successor to not get distracted by social media noise.

“Remember, above all, it is not Twitter that counts; it is the people that sent us here,” Johnson said, reminding lawmakers to put voters at the top of their agendas.

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Boris’ resignation came on the heels of his COVID-19 “Partygate” scandal, in which 16 social gatherings were found to have taken place in Downing Street during a 20-month period of various levels of COVID-related lockdowns in England.

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RELATED: Boris Johnson Apologizes After Report Reveals 16 Office Parties Held During U.K. COVID Lockdown

In April, Johnson became the first U.K. Prime Minister in history to be officially found to have broken the law after being fined by the Metropolitan Police for the parties.

In June, he also survived a vote of confidence among his own members of parliament as a result of the investigation by 211 votes to 148 after an unknown number of Conservative MPs submitted letters stating they could no longer trust him to effectively run the U.K. government.

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