A sudden flurry of resignations at 10 Downing Street over recent controversies surrounding the Prime Minister has prompted doomsday predictions for Boris Johnson.
Downing Street has recently been hit by a surge of resignations, with five officials resigning from their posts in two days.
It comes as doubts are once again raised regarding the future of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with some pundits predicting a possible doomsday for the PM’s premiership.
According to a report by The Guardian, four key officials — Munira Mirza, Dan Rosenfield, Jack Doyle and Martin Reynolds — left their posts in No 10 on Thursday, with one more, Elena Narozanski, quitting on Friday.
Of those who have left their positions, a number were involved in the recent “partygate” scandal, involving alleged gatherings which reportedly broke lockdown regulations.
This includes Johnson’s former Principal Private Secretary, Martin Reynolds, who came under fire after inviting staff to a “bring their own booze” event, a gathering that is now being investigated by London’s Metropolitan Police.
Another aide, however, policy chief Munira Mirza, has claimed to have left her post over recent allegations made by the Prime Minister against Keir Starmer, the leader of the leftist labour party.
During a sitting of parliament on Monday, Johnson accused Starmer — who had previously served as the Director of Public Prosecutions — of “prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”.
“I believe it was wrong for you to imply this week that Keir Starmer was personally responsible for allowing Jimmy Savile to escape justice,” Sky News reports Mirza as writing in her resignation letter.
“There was no fair or reasonable basis for that assertion,” the ex-member of the now-defunct Revolutionary Communist Party continued. “This was not the usual cut and thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse.”
Johnson has since walked back his comments, clarifying that he was trying to make a point about the responsibility a leader has for an organisation — perhaps not an unreasonable observation given recent claims about the goings-on at Downing Street under his leadership.
“Let’s be absolutely clear, I’m talking not about the leader of the opposition’s personal record when he was director of public prosecutions and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions,” The Guardian reported Johnson as saying.
“I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole,” the PM continued. “I really do want to clarify that because it is important.”
While the UK legacy media have reacted with great excitement to the resignations, with claims of rattled MPs and doomsday predictions being made regarding Johnson’s future, the PM has said to have been in immediate danger of being deposed several times in recent weeks and on each occasion, they appeared less urgent in retrospect.
In one case, amid calls for the PM to resign, the government’s use of “Operation Red Meat” policies appeared to stave off a previous “pork pie putsch” against his premiership — at least for the time being.