Battle for survival: UK’s Boris Johnson hangs on to power as ministers resign on soaring cost of living

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Everyday food items like cheese, formula milk, coffee, lamb, and chicken are being increasingly security-tagged by supermarkets in the UK to prevent soaring cases of shoplifting. And it’s not every day that two senior cabinet ministers resign on the same day.

Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak, who held health and finance portfolios respectively, and were supportive of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resigned within minutes on Tuesday evening. The cost of living crisis has made it very unpopular to be an MP, and more so, if you are a cabinet minister.

On a lighter note, the resignations of Sunak and Javid have sparked the imagery of reverse colonialism – two Asian-origin ministers undermining a white prime minister. But with Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, and Alok Sharma still standing behind Johnson that analogy doesn’t go very far.

At last count over 20 government functionaries – including junior ministers and Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS) – from the Tory party have resigned. At the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson insisted he would “keep going”.

Two hours after Johnson faced Keir Starmer in the PMQs, five ministers tendered their resignation through one letter showing that the disappointment and lack of confidence was widespread. At the rate at which it is going it seems that Johnson would find it difficult to find backbenchers to replace the resigning ministers. Regardless of whether Johnson stays (not entirely impossible) or goes (most likely), Sunak’s resignation gives the former chancellor enough scope to come back to the forefront of the Tory party.

If Johnson stays, Sunak will emerge as one of the strongest alternatives to him in a leadership contest. If Johnson goes, then he can rightly claim that it was his resignation (along with Sajid Javid) that laid the foundation for his ouster. The relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor sets the direction for the working of the UK government. If they work in sync there is clarity and force, but if there is asymmetry, it leads to logjam and chaos.

The rising cost of living and impending tax rises had meant that both the offices would play the blame game. A glimpse of that was visible in some morning papers on Wednesday which suggested that with the Chancellor gone, Johnson was free to cut taxes. This battle of perception between the PM and his chancellor is a lived reality, never mind if they are friends or foes. Sunak, with his banker background and marriage to millionaire Akshata Murthy, had clearly much to lose if he stayed in the Treasury as high inflation grips the UK.

He had much less to lose, and perhaps more to gain, if he resigned. “Our country is facing immense challenges. We both want a low-tax, high-growth economy, and world-class public services, but this can only be responsibly delivered if we are prepared to work hard, make sacrifices and take difficult decisions,” Sunak wrote in his resignation letter (italics added). This one key paragraph suggests that unlike him, Johnson was not working hard enough, and shying away from taking the difficult decisions.

Sunak also touched upon the issue of standard in public life, which has been the heaviest albatross around the neck of the prime minister. He reminded him that “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously” and that “these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.” Perhaps to avoid his Tory colleagues seeing him as a stabber, Sunak recalled occasions when he disagreed with Johnson privately, but still supported him publicly.

So far what has got Johnson glued to his chair in Downing Street, is the Tory majority in the 2019 election that got him that position. And even his fiercest critics admit that the party doesn’t have anyone charismatic enough to replace him. It has been over two years since this government came in power and backbenchers grew restless seeing that winning elections and running the government are two different things.

Halfway through the tenure of this government, this is the time to decide whether the Tory party wants to continue to acknowledge Johnson’s contribution for a substantial win, or position itself in the best possible way to win the next general elections. Sunak’s resignation shows that the latter option is what has gained currency now.

Johnson survived the confidence vote, but all his senior ministers were firmly behind him. It’s not the case now. At the PMQs, Labour MP Peter Dowd asked: “Given that the prime minister doesn’t like walkouts and strikes, what legislation will he be introducing to stop further walkouts and strikes from amongst his own colleagues and junior ministers?”

But being part of the government has its own perks. It is a big jump from being an MP to a minister, and Johnson is very much capable of inducting a large chunk of disgruntled MPs into all kinds of ministerships. This, of course, will mean leading a “lightweight brigade” as Starmer referred to earlier. But if that is what is required, Johnson will do that.

Last week, Sunak took questions from Indian journalists in the UK sitting in his office. He spoke on a variety of issues and highlighted the generosity of the British system that had put him, an Indian-origin politician, in Number 11. He will again be seeking that generosity, this time by virtue of delivering a scathing resignation letter to Boris Johnson.