Tuesday 5 July 2022 10:45 PM Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid were brutally frank. Here, we read between the ... trends now
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The Chancellor and Health Secretary quit with an excoriating blast at Boris Johnson over standards and competence tonight, but aides insisted it was not a co-ordinated putsch.
Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid announced they were resigning within nine minutes of each other – just as the Prime Minister was giving a televised statement apologising for the Chris Pincher row.
In a brutal parting shot, Mr Javid said he had lost confidence in the PM and suggested the Government was no longer ‘competent’.
Mr Sunak said he had ‘reluctantly come to the conclusion that we cannot continue like this’ and that people expected government to be ‘conducted properly, competently and seriously’.
He also hinted at a split with the Prime Minister over economic policy, saying it has ‘become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different’.
Mr Sunak’s resignation letter came just nine minutes after Mr Javid’s at 6.11pm – but sources close to the pair insist their departures are not a joint coup.
Rishi Sunak said he had ‘reluctantly come to the conclusion that we cannot continue like this’ and that people expected government to be ‘conducted properly, competently and seriously’
Their resignations came less than a fortnight after Oliver Dowden quit as Conservative Party chairman following a double by-election defeat. A string of other less seismic resignations followed last night, including two Parliamentary Private Secretaries.
Mr Javid had been a friend of the PM’s wife Carrie Johnson who he employed as a special adviser while he was Communities Secretary.
But his resignation today was the second time he has quit Mr Johnson’s government, after resigning as Chancellor in February 2020 over an order to fire his team of aides.
Mr Javid announced his resignation on Twitter at 6.02pm after speaking to the PM. He said he could not continue as health
