LONDON

- A mass escape is taking place in the British Prime Minister's headquarters, "Downing Street 10", after the name of this building has become linked to the scandals of organizing parties during the days of the comprehensive closure experienced by Britain, which put British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the face of a storm of criticism.

In one day, 5 of Johnson's largest and most important advisers submitted their resignations in succession, in the largest process of leaving the offices of the Prime Minister.

This comes at a time when letters of no-confidence from the Prime Minister are pouring in on the leadership of the Conservative Party, which paves the way for the opening of the vote to overthrow Johnson from the leadership of the Conservative Party and thus from the premiership.


group escape

5 of the largest and most important advisers to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced their resignation, including those whose name appeared in the scandal of organizing parties during the days of the comprehensive closure, and some of them feared for their professional fate.

The most noticeable resignation is the resignation of Munira Mirza, Boris Johnson's chief political advisor.

Munira is described as "Johnson's mastermind" of many of his policies, as she worked alongside him 14 years ago, when Johnson was mayor of London, and moved with him to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and participated in managing the Brexit campaign, then became the great influence in the prime minister and the opinion holder in the Boris Johnson.

Despite this charged atmosphere, Johnson is trying to appear confident of keeping his position, and even sarcastic comments on the situation, when he commented on the departure of his advisers that "change is good".

Withdrawal of confidence

Gradually the number of Tory MPs who sent letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson and his expulsion from the Conservative leadership increases, and 9 MPs openly announced that they submitted this letter, while the BBC announced that the number reached 17, which is an insufficient number. To set out on the path to withdraw confidence from Johnson.

According to the internal laws of the Conservative Party, the process of no-confidence begins when 15% of the party's deputies submit a letter to the so-called 1922 Committee, which is currently chaired by "Sir Graham Brady".

And because the Conservative Party currently includes 359 deputies in Parliament, it requires 54 Conservative deputies to send a letter of no-confidence to the 1922 Committee secretly or publicly, and currently only the Chairman of the Committee knows the number of letters, and when the quorum is reached, it will be announced.

At that time, a vote of no confidence in Johnson can be voted, and if 180 Conservative MPs vote to overthrow Johnson, this means that he will leave the party and the government.


political calculations

Members of the Conservative Party find themselves in great embarrassment, and they have their political and even personal accounts. There are those who believe that the party achieved an electoral sweep thanks to Johnson in 2019, and that toppling him would lose the party a communicative and mobilizing personality during election campaigns.

What is happening with the conservatives and Johnson and their fear of dropping them can be likened to what happened with the Republicans in the United States in the days of Donald Trump. Despite Trump’s many mistakes, the Republicans refused to vote against him.

The conservatives are aware that they are currently suffering from a leadership crisis, as there are no names capable of leading the party and the government in difficult circumstances, which may threaten the deterioration of the party’s popularity and accelerate the elections.

The ministers are perplexed

While Boris Johnson insists he will not resign from his position and that his focus is all on the leadership of the Conservatives, divisions are taking place in his party, between strong supporters of Johnson's stay, among those who criticize him but indirectly, and among the silent observers.

One of the prime minister's staunch defenders is Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who has criticized her party colleagues for sending letters of impeachment as "selfish", with Johnson's supporters waving that impeachment would only serve Labour.

And on the same path, Health Minister Sajid Javid, who announced that the Prime Minister had changed a lot inside the Prime Minister's headquarters, so that previous mistakes would not be repeated.

On the other hand, Treasury Minister Rishi Sunak directed an indirect criticism of the government, when he asserted that "trust in the government has been damaged" due to the scandals of parties at the Prime Minister's Residence.

It is believed that the resignation of the Prime Minister from his post has become inevitable and it is only a matter of time, especially since an opinion poll published by the newspaper Politico showed that 65% of Britons want Johnson to resign.