Unease as Johnson remains in Downing Street until Conservatives choose new leader

Boris Johnson has promised ministers there will be no major policy changes while he remains in Downing Street until the Conservative party chooses a new leader. But there was unease among MPs on Thursday night about the prospect of him continuing as prime minister for up to three months while the two-stage election process plays out.

Mr Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday when he was unable to fill ministerial posts after more than 50 MPs left the government, urging him to go. His departure came after months of controversy over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street and questions over what the prime minister knew about sex scandals among his MPs.

In an unrepentant statement outside 10 Downing Street he blamed Conservative MPs for panicking in the face of a hostile media, and made clear that he was leaving reluctantly. “In the last few days I have tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we are delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we are actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term,” he said.

[ ‘Them’s the breaks’: Boris Johnson resigns but plans to remain until successor chosen ]

“As we have seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves. And, my friends, in politics no one is remotely indispensable, and our brilliant Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.”

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Under Conservative party rules MPs stage a series of exhaustive ballots to choose two candidates to go before the entire party membership of about 100,000. The first stage of the process is expected to be completed before parliament goes into recess later this month, with hustings taking place over six weeks and a new leader in place in September.

Former prime minister John Major warned that it would be unwise and possibly unsustainable to allow Mr Johnson to stay on as prime minister for so long. “For the overall wellbeing of the country Mr Johnson should not remain in Downing Street – where he is unable to command the confidence of the House of Commons – for any longer than necessary to effect the smooth transition of government,” he said in a letter to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady.

He suggested that deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, who has ruled himself out for the leadership, could act as caretaker prime minister until a new leader was chosen. Alternatively, MPs could skip the membership’s stage in the election by choosing just one candidate.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said that if the Conservatives did not tell Mr Johnson to leave Downing Street his party would put down a motion of no confidence in the Commons. “Boris Johnson is unfit to govern, and he needs to go now. He can’t cling on for months,” he said.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the departure of Mr Johnson from Downing Street will present an opportunity to reset and improve British-Irish relations.

He acknowledged that Mr Johnson had “been through a difficult couple of months”, and said he wished “him and his family all the best for the future”. He said it was fair to say that the British-Irish relationship had come “under strain” but that “opportunities now arise to reset that relationship”.

Mr Martin said that a change in prime minister was an opportunity to improve the relationship but that was “on the basis of adhering to established agreements that have been entered into freely...particularly in relation to the protocol”.

He said he wanted to get back to “the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement which really was about the two governments working hand in hand”.

On the emerging contest within the Conservative Party, Mr Martin said that within the party “there are elements which never had the same commitment to the DNA of the Good Friday Agreement as the broader parliamentary majority in Westminster would have”.

“There are many Conservatives on the other hand who were dismayed by the unilateralism, particularly at the decision to bring in legislation to unilaterally override the agreement that the Westminster parliament has ratified,” Mr Martin added.

Attorney general Suella Braverman became the first MP to put herself forward for the leadership, promising to run on a right-wing programme. Other likely candidates include foreign secretary Liz Truss, defence secretary Ben Wallace, former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak and former health secretary Sajid Javid.

Foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat and former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt are also expected to stand.