Will Boris Johnson resign?

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The outcry over that smear prompted the resignation of Mr Johnson’s long-loyal adviser and director of policy Munira Mirza, who sent him a letter saying the “scurrilous” Savile jibe was an “inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse” and told Mr Johnson: “You have let yourself down.” Her exit was swiftly followed by three more, as the PM’s communications chief Jack Doyle, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and principal private secretary Martin Reynolds all likewise jumped ship – with Downing Street hurriedly briefing that their exits were all part of a pre-planned shakeup of Mr Johnson’s inner circle. Finally, at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons at high noon on Wednesday 12 January, Mr Johnson did address the issue, confirming that he had attended the garden gathering for around 25 minutes with the intention of thanking his staff for their efforts during the pandemic while claiming, somewhat improbably: “I believed implicitly that it was a work event.” He apologised, expressed empathy for the public fury in light of the personal sacrifices millions had made and again implored his critics to await the outcome of Ms Gray’s inquiry before passing judgement. That cut little ice with his opposition number, Sir Keir describing the PM as a “pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road” and “without shame”, derided his apology as “worthless” following “months of deceit and deception” and called on him to resign, the seething disdain in his voice drawing chuckles of laughter from across Parliament while members of Mr Johnson’s frontbench sat stoney-faced behind their Covid masks. As further details were leaked to the newspapers in dribs and drabs, Mr Johnson invited further exasperated ridicule when he told Sky News during a hospital visit on Tuesday 18 January: “I can’t believe we would have gone ahead with an event that people said was against the rules… Nobody warned me it was against the rules, I am categorical about that – I would have remembered that.” After news of a sixteenth and final party, the aforementioned gathering to celebrate Mr Johnson’s birthday, emerged, the Met announced its investigation, prompting the delay of Ms Gray’s report.