Four of British Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson’s senior aides resigned from their positions, further deepening the challenge posed to Johnson’s premiership. The resignations were presented over the past two days, shortly after an internal probe into violations of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions by government officials during Downing Street parties in 2020-2021 highlighted that the “failures of the leadership” that resulted in the breaches.
Boris Johnson has been caught in a string of scandals recently that brought to light the several parties attended by British ministers as the country’s citizens struggled with COVID-19 restrictions. Amid calls for his resignation, he set up an internal probe, led by Sue Gray, which looked into 16 events conducted between May 2020 and April 2021. Out of these 16, 12 are being investigated by the country’s police.
Against this backdrop, on Wednesday, Director of Communications, Jack Doyle, and Policy Head, Munira Mirza, resigned from their positions. Shortly after, on Thursday, Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield and Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds also stepped down from their positions.
Doyle said that while he had always intended to quit after two years, the recent events had “taken a terrible toll on my family life.” Furthermore, Rosenfield said that while he had resigned, he would continue to serve his position till the office found his successor. Meanwhile, Reynolds said he would do the same and eventually join the Foreign Office.
However, Mirza’s departure was the most significant as she was Johnson’s longstanding ally, who had played a critical role in the PM's campaigns and policies. She said that she quit over Johnson’s false allegations against opposition leader Keir Starmer. On Monday, Johnson said that as the Director of Public Prosecution, Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Saville, who has been accused of numerous incidents of sexual harassment, including several children.
Mirza said that she believed it was “wrong” of Johnson “to imply this week that Keir Starmer was personally responsible for allowing Jimmy Saville to escape justice.” She highlighted that despite several requests, Johnson refused to apologise for the statement. “This was not the usual cut and thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sexual abuse,” she added.
Political leaders in support of Johnson’s continued premiership have celebrated these resignations as a sign that the Prime Minister was making critical changes in his staff following the Sue Gray reports damning findings. Nevertheless, the resignations have strengthened calls for Johnson to step down as PM. Labour Party leader Angela Rayner said that the senior advisers and aides’ resignations indicate that “it is finally time for him to look in the mirror and consider if he might just be the problem.”
These developments come just days after the release of the Sue Gray report, which said that “the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify.” It claimed that the events indicated a “serious failure” of government officials to adhere to the far-reaching restrictions that the entire British population was subjected to.
Over the past few months, Johnson’s popularity has been steadily declining. For instance, according to a Survation poll on Wednesday, around 62% of adults in the UK wanted him to resign as the country’s PM. Similar numbers were also reported by a Savanta ComRes poll (66%) and an Opinium survey (63%). However, over the past few months, Johnson has rejected calls for his resignation despite his growing unpopularity and is likely to continue to do so till the conclusion of the police investigation.