UK PM Johnson quits after cabinet bloodbath
What you need to know:
- Johnson, 58, said he would stay on as prime minister until a replacement is found.
- Johnson late on Wednesday had sacked minister Michael Gove, with a Downing Street source describing his former Brexit right-hand-man as a "snake" in the media.
Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday as leader of Britain's Conservative party, paving the way for the selection of a new prime minister after dozens of ministers quit his government over 48 hours of frenzied political drama.
"It is clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new prime minister," Johnson said outside 10 Downing Street.
The timetable for a Tory leadership race will be announced next week, he said, after three tumultuous years in office defined by Brexit, the Covid pandemic and non-stop controversy over his reputation for mendacity.
Johnson, 58, said he would stay on as prime minister until a replacement is found.
He had fought hard against a cabinet revolt and said he was "sad... to be giving up the best job in the world", justifying fighting on in the final hours to deliver the mandate he won in a Brexit-dominated general election in December 2019.
"And let me say now, to the people of Ukraine, that I know that we in the UK will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes," he added in his six-minute address.
Ukraine's presidency thanked Johnson for his support in "the hardest times".
Johnson's few remaining allies in the Tory party stood adjacent alongside wife Carrie, carrying their baby daughter Romy.
The Conservative leadership election will take place over the summer and the victor will replace Johnson by the party's annual conference in early October, the BBC and others reported.
