A Government in a Pinch
It has been a strange time to be a British resident. Over the past 48 hours, Her Majesty’s government has been falling. After the pressure on Boris Johnson to resign grew, as The Guardian reported, No 10 dug in his heels and attempted to retain control of the abandoned ship. Yet, at about 9:30 am BST on July 7, Johnson finally resigned as leader of the Conservative Party.
This was not the first call for Johnson to resign, but it was the most resounding one. Following accusations of molestation, the Partygate scandal, amongst others, the Prime Minister was brought down after he admitted to appointing Chris Pincher to Government despite knowing of the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
While Sajid Javed (former Health Secretary) and Rishi Sunak (former Chancellor) were the first to resign, over 57 Conservative politicians had resigned from their posts in a historic mass exodus.
There is no faith in Johnson’s leadership, the resignation letters declared, and following the difficult terrains of Brexit negotiations, the pandemic, and consequent economic crises made worse by the war in Ukraine—this was one scandal too many. The accusation was clear: Johnson does not know how to lead a government of integrity.
Parallel Lines
In peculiar circumstances, I have been under the governance of two collapsing systems in the past ten days. Before the en masse lawmaker exit in the UK, I watched closely as the state government of my home state, Maharashtra, India, was brought to its knees with an eerily similar modus operandi.
Over 50 Members of the Legislative Assembly turned against former Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray, forcing his resignation. These MLAs from his party claimed they had no faith in his coalition government—and that for the party (Shiv Sena) to ally with the Congress ran adverse to its primary Hindutva ally. In late 2019, Shiv Sena had made a historic break with their oldest ally BJP to form a Mahaghatbandhan (‘The Great Alliance’).
While this does not bode well for the growing threat of Hindu majoritarianism in India, it brings a clear example of party leaders being brought to heel—and even out of ranks— when lawmakers sense a lack of confidence in their allegiances.
Into the Furnace
Unstable governments do no one good—but Boris Johnson’s initial refusal to resign and exit with a modicum of dignity makes the instability worse. It also makes for poor optics, though the Johnson-led government has never been good at managing its public image.
In an unlikely comparison, Thackeray’s resignation as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister presented him as a sympathetic figure. The people, the narrative went, had confidence in his leadership and he was a victim of bad faith politics. For Johnson, such an eyewash is not possible. It is far too late. While he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote last month, he simply could not escape the political guillotine.