The British Prime Minister must go now

Britain’s main opposition party, Labor, on Friday threatened to use a no-confidence vote to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign immediately after he was forced to resign in a cabinet revolt.

Johnson resigned as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on Thursday after committing nearly 60 resignations in less than 48 hours against his scandal-hit leadership.

But the 58-year-old Prime Minister, whose three-year term has been defined by Britain’s exit from the European Union and Covid, said he will stay until his successor is found.

As candidates geared up for a fight to replace Johnson, he faced calls to leave immediately and appoint an acting leader to run the world’s fifth-largest economy, meanwhile.

Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said on Friday they wanted to trigger a vote of no confidence in Parliament if the Tories don’t get rid of him immediately.

“He’s a proven liar who’s covered in dirt and we can’t have that for a few more months,” she told BBC radio.

“If they don’t we will call a vote of no confidence because it’s pretty clear he doesn’t have the confidence of the House of Commons or the British public.”

To do this, they would need the support of dozens of Conservative MPs. But the strategy is strained as it could trigger a general election in which the Tories could lose their seats if Johnson is defeated.

James Cleverly, newly installed as Education Secretary, insisted Johnson would remain in office for the next few months.

“It is right that he has resigned and it is right that he has put together a team that will continue to rule while the selection process for his successor is ongoing,” he told Sky News.

“And we should do that pretty quickly, I think.”

A timeline for the Tory leadership contest is expected to be announced on Monday, with the winner being announced in time for the party’s annual conference in early October.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Rishi Sunak – whose resignation as Treasury Secretary on Tuesday triggered the chain of withdrawals – were among the first frontrunners, according to a YouGov poll of Tory members.

Secretary of State Liz Truss, another potential contender, cut short a trip to Indonesia for a G20 meeting to fly back.

So far, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat and Attorney General Suella Braverman have both officially announced their candidacy, while Brexiteer Steve Baker has signaled interest.

In a defiant resignation speech at Downing Street, Johnson said he was “sad… to leave the best job in the world”.

But he said he initially refused to surrender to his “flock” of Tory critics, claiming a personal mandate he won in a landslide in December 2019.

Even while keeping an eye on the exit, Johnson attempted to stabilize the ship and made several appointments to replace deceased cabinet members.

At a first meeting of his hastily convened new cabinet, Johnson reaffirmed his lame duck status by saying “major budgetary decisions should be left to the next prime minister,” Downing Street said.

Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid prompted the exodus by resigning late Tuesday, just as Johnson apologized for pardoning a senior colleague who was appointed to a prominent role over sexual assault allegations.

Chris Pincher resigned as Deputy Chief Whip last week after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men.

Downing Street officials eventually acknowledged that Johnson had been aware of other allegations against Pincher as early as 2019, and many ministers balked at having to defend the leader again.

As of Wednesday night, Johnson had defiantly clung to power.

But he was forced to admit his time was up after another round of resignations on Thursday morning and warnings of a second no-confidence vote by Tory MPs next week.

Tory fighting erupted as millions of Britons battled the worst slump in living standards since the 1950s, fueled by soaring energy prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Johnson’s popularity had plummeted since revelations about lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street, which saw him fined as the first prime minister in office.

Johnson successfully alluded to a vaccination campaign but was criticized for his initial response to the pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 people dead in the UK after contracting Covid.