Boris Johnson, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, made his decision to withdraw from the campaign to succeed Liz Truss as leader of the Conservative Party public on Sunday.
Johnson made the news three days after his replacement Liz Truss announced her resignation from the role after serving for just 44 days. In a statement, Johnson said he had just come to the realization that he was not now capable of bringing the Parliament together. Even though just 57 MPs openly endorsed Johnson’s unprecedented second candidacy, he claimed to have the backing of up to 102 fellow lawmakers.
Johnson claimed in a statement that there was a “very good probability” that he would win the election with support from Conservative Party members and that he “may in fact be back in Downing Street on Friday.” “But over the past few days, I have regrettably come to the terrible realization that doing this would be morally incorrect. Without a cohesive party in parliament, it is impossible to successfully govern.”
“And although though I tried to get in touch with Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak in the hopes that we might work together for the sake of the country, we have tragically been unable to do so. I fear that the wisest course of action is for me to withdraw my nomination and pledge my support to the victor “He proceeded by mentioning the other two front-runners for the PM position, former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt.
“I think I have a lot to contribute, but I’m afraid this just isn’t the perfect moment,”
Boris Johnson pulls out of Conservative leadership race https://t.co/6lbfBMiJne
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 23, 2022
With Boris Johnson pulling out of the race, Rishi Sunak could well be Prime Minister by Monday evening.
So Parliament's richest MP will be the one unleashing huge cuts to our public services.
What a sick joke. General Election now!
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) October 23, 2022
BREAKING: Boris Johnson will not stand for the Tory leadership, saying that despite having the support of the MPs required to run, he had come to the conclusion “this would simply not be the right thing to do” as “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party.”
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) October 23, 2022
Sunak launched his candidacy to be the party’s and ultimately the nation’s leader just hours before the announcement on Sunday. Mordaunt has a little more than 20 members, but Sunak has 124.
Sunak tweeted, “I want to improve our economy, unify our Party, and deliver for our country.” The prime minister claims that Johnson’s decision-making process was actually aided by his pessimism on party unity.
