UK prime minister Boris Johnson is officially out of 10 Downing Street after an avalanche of resignations from within his own government, following a string of scandals.
State of the resig-nation
Data compiled by the Institute for Government (recreated above) shows how Johnson's tenure had already been dogged by more ministerial departures than many of his predecessors in his first 3 years in office. But the pressure on his premiership ratcheted up significantly on Tuesday when two key ministers, chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid, left their positions within 10 minutes of each other — writing some pretty damning resignation letters in the process.
As Johnson clung to power in the wake of those departures, he worked quickly to re-assemble his top team. He was hopeful that his new appointment to Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, would be a powerful ally. Instead, less than 24 hours after being given the job, Zahawi himself told Johnson it was time to go.
All told Johnson saw a total of 46 ministers resign from his government, most coming in the span of just a few days. That's the most of any modern PM — despite a relatively short tenure of nearly 3 years in office. From here, the question of who is living at Number 10 in a few months time is straightforward: it's going to be Larry the chief mouser and whoever wins the internal struggle for the British Conservative party leadership.
