If UK Prime Minister Remain In Office Until Successor Government Will Be Left Paralysed

Michael Gove, the recently sacked former community’s secretary, is understood to be arguing that Mr Johnson should leave office on Monday.

According to report, the Government will be left paralysed for months if Boris Johnson stays in Downing Street until his successor is chosen, senior Tories have warned.

The Prime Minister, who finally succumbed to a ministerial revolt and announced his resignation on Thursday, told his new Cabinet he would not implement any new policies until he is replaced.

Tory chiefs believe the process could take until early autumn. Calls – including from Sir John Major, a former prime minister – mounted for Mr Johnson to depart immediately and hand over power to a “caretaker”.

It comes as the UK faces a wave of public sector strikes over pay and travel chaos this summer, while the economy is forecast to be heading for recession as inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.

There were signs on Thursday that the Tory implosion was already affecting government business, with the gaps in Mr Johnson’s front bench causing delays to planned scrutiny of proposed laws.

Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister, has made clear through allies that he will not seek the Tory leadership – theoretically freeing him to take over from Mr Johnson in a move that would have no constitutional precedent.

Among those urging the Prime Minister to depart quickly was Sir John, who warned against allowing him staying on for a prolonged period.

He said: “The proposal for the Prime Minister to remain in office – for up to three months – having lost the support of his Cabinet, his government and his parliamentary party is unwise and may be unsustainable.”

The race to succeed Mr Johnson was up and running on Thursday, with some candidates publicly declaring and others privately building teams and sounding out MPs.

Tom Tugendhat, the foreign affairs committee chairman, declared his candidacy in The Telegraph, outlining his pitch to unify the Conservatives after a period of division.

But the Tory bloodletting set to play out over the coming weeks was already apparent as Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked Rishi Sunak’s “unsuccessful” record as chancellor.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Rishi Sunak was not a successful chancellor. He was a high tax chancellor, and he was a chancellor who was not alert to the inflationary problem.

“We are facing internationally the greatest crisis in relation to inflation, and I’m afraid the Treasury has not been tackling that properly. It has not been focusing on the inflationary issue. It has not taken charge of quantitative easing.”

Mr Johnson announced his resignation on the steps of Downing Street at 12.30pm on Thursday, finally accepting that opposition to his leadership among Tory MPs was too much.

The Prime Minister had been defiant and determined to fight on during Wednesday evening, but decided to quit by 6am on Thursday, shortly after he woke, according to a close ally. 

He said: “It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.”

He argued he still had the country’s support, noting the House of Commons majority he won in December 2019 and that the Labour Party was only a few percentage points ahead in opinion polls.