Where Does Boris Johnson’s Exit Leave the UK?
The embattled prime minister is finally calling it quits after a series of controversies. His replacement will inherit a mixed bag of post-Brexit anxiety and relative stability.
Larry the Downing Street cat has outlasted three prime ministers.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Well, “them’s the breaks,” as Boris Johnson so eloquently put it. After a prolonged series of scandals, the UK prime minister finally conceded it was time to step down. It only took 59 resignations over about 40 hours.
There were moments when I, and I’m sure I’m not alone, wondered whether I was in fact living inside an episode of “The Thick of It”: resignations flying in so fast you could barely pause for a cuppa; Nadhim Zahawi turning on his boss, hours after taking a new job as chancellor; the suggestion that Boris wants to stay on so badly because he’s hosting a lavish, postponed wedding party in a few weeks at Chequers, the official country home of UK prime ministers.