Increasingly isolated British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is struggling to survive politically.

The prime minister, weakened by numerous scandals and dozens of resignations by government representatives, continues to refuse to step down.

Rather, on Wednesday evening he dismissed his housing minister, Michael Gove, who, according to media reports, had also asked him to resign.

"He fired Michael Gove," James Duddridge, a close associate of Johnson, told Sky News.

"The PM is in high spirits and will keep fighting."

Johnson is currently facing the biggest crisis of his three-year tenure.

The resignations of Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Minister Sajid Javid on Tuesday evening in protest against the scandal-ridden head of government have led to around 40 further resignations from their own ranks.

Minister Simon Hart, who is responsible for Wales, resigned on Wednesday evening.

The Daily Telegraph spoke of a "mutiny" against the prime minister.

According to media reports, at a crisis meeting in Downing Street in the evening, leading cabinet members together tried to urge Johnson to resign – apparently including Home Secretary Priti Patel and the new Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who has only been in office for 24 hours.

Johnson allies Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries, on the other hand, expressed their support for the prime minister.

"Somber mood at No 10 Downing Street, insiders report 'lots of tears' in the building," wrote the Daily Mirror's politics editor Pippa Crerar on Twitter.

But the 58-year-old Johnson was not to be persuaded: he wanted to remain in office and concentrate on “the extremely important issues” that Britain was facing, several media reported afterwards.

According to the Daily Mail, Johnson argued that a resignation would cause “chaos” and would “almost certainly” weigh on the Conservatives for defeat in the next election.

"Pathetic spectacle"

During the weekly question and answer session in the House of Commons and before a parliamentary committee, Johnson had previously confirmed that he would remain in office.

"We need stable government, we need to love each other as conservatives, we need to move forward with our priorities," he said.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of putting on a "pathetic spectacle".

The parliamentary group leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Ian Blackford, called for a new election.

The resignations of Ministers Sunak and Javid came minutes after Johnson issued a statement apologizing for appointing a Tory politician suspected of sexual harassment as Deputy Secretary of Parliament.

Chris Pincher resigned from the post late last week after sexually harassing two men.

Narrowly survived the vote of no confidence

It became known that Johnson had already been informed of allegations against Pincher in 2019.

The Prime Minister initially had this denied, but then had to admit it and assured him that he had "forgotten" this fact.

Johnson's government and his Conservative ruling party have been rocked by a string of scandals in recent months.

In addition to a donation affair and scandals about abusive party colleagues, the scandal about parties at the seat of government during the corona lockdown weighed heavily.

In early June, Johnson narrowly survived an internal party vote of no confidence.

An influential committee of non-ministerial Tory MPs known as the 1922 Committee could reportedly change the party's rules next week, paving the way for a second no-confidence vote.