LONDON — Boris Johnson announced his intention to resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom, bringing the curtain down on a tempestuous three years in office marred by a succession of scandals that culminated in the rebellion of his own Cabinet and parliamentary group.
Johnson, 58, bowed to the inevitable after the mass resignation of members of his government, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, as a mounting number of Conservative MPs launched excoriating public attacks on his judgment, leadership and allegiance to the truth.
“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,” Johnson said in a brief statement outside 10 Downing Street, blaming the “herd instinct” in Westminster for his departure.
