United Kingdom: resignation of the president of the Conservative Party after two electoral setbacks
Conservative Party Executive Chairman Oliver Dowden walks out after a series of election setbacks.
AFP/Archives
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
It's a triple slap for Boris Johnson.
Two weeks after narrowly winning a vote of confidence, the British Prime Minister has just suffered two defeats in partial legislative elections.
In the aftermath, the executive chairman of the Conservative Party, Oliver Dowden, has just resigned.
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With our correspondent in London,
Émeline Vin
The letter was sent at 5:30 this Friday morning.
Oliver Dowden explains that “
after a series of electoral setbacks, we cannot carry on as if nothing had happened.
Someone has to take responsibility
”.
Oliver Dowden, the chairman of the Conservative Party and historic loyalist to Boris Johnson, says he shares voters' "
distress and disappointment
" after recent events including
Partygate
and the loss of 500 seats in the last
local election
.
Worst Tory result
Oliver Dowden resigns a few minutes after the results of two partial legislative elections.
The Tories recorded their worst result and lost both seats.
Boris Johnson has yet to respond publicly.
He
is currently in Rwanda
for the Commonwealth summit, but he had indicated beforehand that he would not resign in the event of a setback.
Will the government remain loyal?
The Prime Minister is protected from another vote of no confidence from his party for a year, having won the last one in early June.
But his government, so far loyal, could decide to turn against him in view of the latest electoral underperformance and two years from the next election.
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