UK Labour leader says he would back snap election against Johnson’s govt.
UK's Labour leader says he backs a snap general election, calling the embattled premier “unfit to govern.”
“He is unfit to be prime minister, he is not fit to govern the country,” Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday. “We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a change of government.”
Earlier in the day, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, Britain's finance and health ministers, resigned in what many observers described as a “final blow” to Boris Johnson's already beleaguered government.
The government had already received two major blows.
One became known as “partygate” or the scandal created by the premier’s throwing several parties at Number 10 during the coronavirus’ pandemic, and his repeatedly lying to the parliament about them. The other scandal broke after Johnson feigned ignorance over allegations of sexual misconduct facing Tory MP Chris Pincher.
Starmer described Sunak and Javid as the prime minister’s “cheerleaders throughout this sorry saga,” pointing out that they “backed him for months and months and months.”
“Backing him when he broke the law, backing him when he lied repeatedly…,” the Labour leader said.
“Resigning today means nothing against their complicity for all those months when they should have seen him for what he was, they knew who he was.”
Parliamentary private secretaries resign
Also on Tuesday, parliamentary private secretaries Nicola Richards and Virginia Crosbie have stepped down.
Richards said that the government's focus had been "skewed by poor judgment, which I don't want to be associated with."
Crosbie said she "cannot continue to defend" Johnson's actions, noting, "I am forced to say that the sheer number of allegations of impropriety and illegality - many of them centred around Downing St and your premiership - is simply making your position untenable."
Meanwhile, in a last-ditch effort to patch things up, Johnson appointed his chief of staff Steve Barclay as new health minister, and Nadhim Zahawi, who was previously education secretary, as finance minister.
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