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  • 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,

  • Boris johnson is stepping down as the UK's prime minister.

  • Unable to overcome a string of scandals around unlawful parties during the pandemic and broader

  • questions about his integrity.

  • In less than three years,

  • he's gone from this to this,

  • apologies to everybody for the misjudgments that

  • I've made,

  • that we may have made johnson enjoyed a steady rise from journalist to

  • London mayor to prime Minister,

  • despite gaffes that sometimes led to accusations of racism,

  • sexism and spreading misinformation,

  • I'm sorry for the offense that I have caused,

  • but I will continue to speak as directly as I can as prime minister.

  • He had the shortest tenure of any conservative head of government in nearly 60 years,

  • johnson was once considered the golden boy of the Conservative Party.

  • So how did he climb so high and why did his premiership fall apart?

  • To answer that question,

  • we need to understand what sort of politician Boris johnson is,

  • which means going right back to the start.

  • What are you not ashamed of the Boris whatever there is not to be ashamed,

  • Back when he was a political columnist in the 90s,

  • Johnson's early appearances on the BBC's satirical current affairs show.

  • Have I got news for you brought him national recognition and endeared him to the British

  • public people like Boris

  • johnson and find him amiable and fun and that served him very well during his career.

  • His celebrity status made him one of the most

  • recognizable politicians in the UK.

  • This helped him get elected to parliament in 2000 and one and seven years later,

  • he became the first conservative to win the race for mayor of London.

  • I know that there will be many whose pencils hovered for an instance

  • for an instant before putting their X in my box as mayor.

  • He found success focusing on issues such as crime and public transport.

  • He also reveled in promoting the London 2012 Olympics,

  • including the infamous moment he got stuck on a zip wire.

  • But johnson had loftier ambitions.

  • We should take the chance now as a country to take back

  • control,

  • take back control,

  • take control,

  • take back the democratic control.

  • In 2016,

  • Johnson was back in parliament and surprised many by going against the leader of his own party by backing

  • Brexit.

  • I will be advocating leave.

  • He quickly became a leading voice in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union,

  • which then one the british people have spoken and the answer is

  • the Brexit referendum and the following negotiations with the EU ended the careers of two conservative

  • prime ministers and paved the way for johnson to take power.

  • There will be people around the place who will

  • question the wisdom of your decision.

  • In october 2019.

  • He called a general election and led the conservatives to their biggest victory since 1987

  • allowing the swift passage in december of his divorce deal with the EU.

  • I think Boris will get Brexit done and people will not

  • regret Boris being the next our new prime minister.

  • His pitch that the public was,

  • I'm going to use Brexit this divorce with the EU to sort of reset the way that we do

  • politics in the UK and bring areas of the UK that has long been forgotten about

  • or brushed over by his predecessors back to the forefront and and

  • treat blue collar workers better,

  • johnson though,

  • would not be able to bask in his electoral victory for long.

  • The number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has

  • increased 13-fold global pandemic.

  • In 2020,

  • Johnson was faced with leading the country through the coronavirus pandemic,

  • which has so far caused the deaths of more than 180,000 people in the UK.

  • The Prime Minister was criticized for not acting quickly enough to prevent the spread of the virus and for not taking it seriously.

  • From the start,

  • I was at the hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and

  • I shook hands with everybody.

  • At the end of March,

  • johnson announced that he had mild symptoms of the virus.

  • I've taken a test that has come out positive and was

  • hospitalized.

  • Just over a week later,

  • He spent seven nights in the hospital,

  • including three in intensive care.

  • The pandemic in some ways.

  • Played both the johnson's great strength and his great weakness and the great strength is that

  • he's an excellent communicator and he really managed to rally the country behind him and

  • also pushed a very successful vaccine program.

  • The downfall was that he is a natural libertarian and is known for being somewhat

  • indecisive and so Britain sadly suffered one of the highest death tolls in

  • europe from the disease,

  • in part because Mr johnson was very reticent to lock the country down,

  • johnson faced backlash when he admitted to attending a party in Downing Street during a period when people could only meet one

  • other person outside to prevent the spread of coronavirus Mr Speaker.

  • I want to apologize,

  • I believed implicitly that this was a work event.

  • Some Conservative lawmakers defended johnson,

  • but many people across the country who had abided by the strict lockdown rules,

  • felt betrayed by the Prime minister.

  • I don't trust him anymore.

  • There's no trust at this point,

  • I think he's kind of lost his credibility as Prime minister.

  • A police investigation into the events resulted in the Prime Minister being fined though he resisted demands to

  • resign.

  • I've paid the fine and I once again offer a full

  • apology.

  • The revelations proved to be the beginning of the end.

  • For johnson in june,

  • he was booed by a crowd as he arrived for a special jubilee service of thanksgiving for the

  • queen and only a few days

  • after that.

  • He was subject to a vote of no confidence by his own party.

  • He survived but was badly bruised.

  • Around a third of Conservative lawmakers voted against him.

  • Don't forget that,

  • you know,

  • when I first stood to be Leader of the Conservative Party in

  • 2019,

  • I didn't get anything like that much support from my colleagues

  • were building that.

  • Meanwhile,

  • Johnson is also accused of mishandling a series of scandals around conservative lawmakers misconduct.

  • I think it was a mistake and I apologize for for it.

  • I think in hindsight it was the wrong thing to do.

  • And the party lost local and national elections,

  • casting doubts over his popularity with voters in july a flurry of cabinet

  • resignations,

  • including the Treasury Chief and Health Secretary rocked the government.

  • We have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we've all been told.

  • And at some point we have to conclude that

  • enough is enough.

  • I believe that point is now in the end,

  • Boris johnson was undone because he was no longer viewed as an electoral asset by

  • Mps but a liability.

  • And the minute that lawmakers saw that johnson was no longer likely to win them

  • elections,

  • they jettisoned him

it is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party,

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