Karim El-Bar
07 July 2022•Update: 08 July 2022
LONDON
Boris Johnson held a meeting with newly appointed Cabinet ministers hours after resigning as the UK’s prime minister.
It was an attempt to project an image of calm as the ruling Conservative Party begins the process of electing a new leader, who will become the next prime minister.
In a statement, Downing Street said no new policies will be announced until the next premier is chosen.
At the Cabinet meeting, Johnson welcomed those “returning or joining for the first time,” the statement said.
Johnson said his priority is “to continue delivering on manifesto pledges and making sure the government is on the side of the public, on the cost of energy, transport and housing and all else that matters to them.”
“He made clear the government would not seek to implement new policies or make major changes of direction, rather it would focus on delivering the agenda on which the government was elected,” the statement said.
“He said major fiscal decisions should be left for the next prime minister.”
Johnson’s decision to stay in office until a successor is chosen has sparked controversy within the fractured Conservative Party.
While this is the convention usually followed, critics argue that Johnson and the lengths taken to depose him are unconventional at the least.
His opponents contend that the selection process for the new party leader should be expedited, or Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab should take over as caretaker premier.
John Major, a former prime minister and staunch Johnson critic, said it would be “unwise” to allow Johnson to stay in office until a successor is selected.
“The proposal for the prime minister to remain in office – for up to three months – having lost the support of his Cabinet, his government and his parliamentary party is unwise, and may be unsustainable,” Major wrote in a letter to an internal Conservative Party committee.
“In such a circumstance, the prime minister maintains the patronage and, of even greater concern, the power to make decisions which power of will affect the lives of those within all four nations of the United Kingdom and further afield. Some will argue that his new Cabinet will restrain him. I merely note that his previous Cabinet did not – or could not – do so.”
Major said Johnson should not remain in office “for the overall wellbeing of the country,” emphasizing that he “is unable to command the confidence of the House of Commons.”
Raab, the deputy prime minister, remains in his position and has ruled out a bid for the Conservative leadership, leaving the door open for him to potentially take over as caretaker prime minister, though he has not publicly suggested or backed the idea himself.
