Sunak Quitting Has Put Johnson In Even More Trouble
The embattled British PM Boris Johnson is in even more trouble after chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid dramatically resigned from the UK prime minister’s cabinet yesterday.
The double shock did not immediately shake Johnson who appointed education secretary Nadhim Zahawi his new chancellor, showing that it is business as usual. He also named Steve Barclay, a former Treasury minister and currently Johnson’s chief of staff, as health secretary.
Johnson has also lost the support of Tory vice-chair Bim Afolami and these resignations have thrown his premiership into question and come amid mounting Tory fury at the prime minister.
Though the main reason given for their resignations is the PM’s handling of former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, Sunak indicated in his letter that he disagreed on the immediate economic move planned by the PM.
Pincher was forced last week to quit after allegations that he groped two men while drunk at a private members’ club. The PM is under pressure from party members for nominating Pincher to a role in charge of MPs’ welfare while a misconduct complaint had been upheld against him.
Johnson’s economic woes
Sunak suggested that the prime minister was willing to deceive voters about the economy’s dire state and is not considering the need for “difficult decisions.”
“I believe the public are ready to hear the truth,” he said, adding that Johnson and he “fundamentally” disagreed over economic policy. “Our people know that if something is too good to be true, then it’s not true.”
Tory MPs said Johnson told them he was more likely to propose early tax cuts and the reversal of a planned increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25% next year.
Sunak opposed such a reversal because he believed the increase was necessary to repair the public finances.
On the tax cuts, which some reports say is popular with Tory rightwingers, Sunak says he fears this will fuel inflation as price rises are now reaching the double digit in the UK.