Did Boris Johnson actually resign?

“It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new Prime Minister.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement regarding his future as Conservative party leader and Prime Minister has been interpreted with some uncertainty. 

One Sky News headline read “Boris Johnson resigns as Prime Minister”, while others, such as the BBC, have reported that he has resigned as Conservative party leader. But according to some, including Labour MP Chris Bryant and Times columnist and former Conservative MP Matthew Parris, Mr Johnson has not actually resigned from either position yet.

It is true that while Mr Johnson has confirmed there will be a Conservative party leadership election to replace him, he currently remains Prime Minister, with reports claiming he intends to stay in place in this role until autumn.

There are two options following a Prime Minister’s resignation. As the think tank the Institute for Government says: “There must be a prime minister. If the resigning leader is prime minister, he or she would normally be expected to stay in post until a new leader was elected, as Theresa May did in 2019 and David Cameron did in 2016.

“If they do not wish to do that, they could resign and recommend that the Queen appoint somebody else as prime minister until the Conservative Party had chosen a new leader. That person would presumably be another Conservative MP and probably a member of the Cabinet. They would be prime minister until the leadership contest is over. This would be a very unusual situation and unprecedented in modern times.”

So in order to formally resign as Prime Minister, Mr Johnson must hold an audience with the Queen to inform her of his resignation, with his replacement then invited to form a government by the Queen shortly afterwards. This process has not yet taken place, and until it does, Mr Johnson will remain Prime Minister.

The Conservative party has confirmed to Full Fact that Mr Johnson is also still currently party leader.

Mr Johnson has, however, said that “the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week”, and a number of MPs have already announced their intentions to stand. In his speech, he said he intended to continue as leader “until a new leader is in place”.

Mr Johnson’s decision to continue as Prime Minister until a new Conservative leader is elected is not without precedent.

Theresa May and David Cameron stayed in post

The process Mr Johnson set out in his 7 July speech is similar to what happened during the previous two transfers of power in Downing Street. Both Theresa May and David Cameron announced their intention to resign as Conservative party leader, but remained in office as Prime Minister until their replacement was confirmed.

In Ms May’s case, she officially stepped down as Prime Minister exactly two months after announcing her intention to do so.

On 24 May 2019, Ms May announced she would resign as Conservative party leader on 7 June, with the subsequent leadership contest seeing Mr Johnson elected on 23 July. On 24 July, Ms May resigned as Prime Minister, with Mr Johnson appointed to the position by the Queen minutes later.

Mr Cameron’s resignation on 24 June 2016 saw him initially commit to staying in post as Prime Minister for the following three months. In actual fact, Mr Cameron was replaced as Prime Minister less than one month later, following a shorter-than-expected Conservative leadership contest which concluded on 11 July with Ms May elected as the sole-remaining candidate.

Mr Cameron officially resigned as Prime Minister and she formed a government two days later, on 13 July.

Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Johnson explicitly said the word “resign” in their initial announcements, though Ms May did.

The timetable for the forthcoming Conservative leadership election is yet to be confirmed, so it’s currently unclear for how long Mr Johnson will remain Prime Minister and party leader.

However, his choice to remain in office until a new leader is elected, though criticised by some who believe he should step down immediately, is in line with the way his two predecessors handled their own resignations.

Image courtesy of 10 Downing Street