British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally taken a fatal blow from the latest sex-pest scandal to hit his government — but what will be history's verdict on his three years in office?
The former journalist and mayor of London already had a reputation as a womanizer and an incident of fabricating a source for a newspaper article long before the series of scandals that marked the latter half of his premiership.
As is often the case in politics, Johnson's exit from Downing Street mirrors his arrival. BoJo took over from his predecessor Theresa May after she survived a no-confidence vote by backbenchers — but was then told to resign by her party's "men in grey suits" after disastrous European Parliament election results.
Johnson, who picked the winning side in the 2016 European Union membership referendum, sailed to victory over Remainer Jeremy Hunt, but was then faced with the task of striking an acceptable Brexit withdrawal agreement and trade deal with the EU.
The first major controversy of his leadership came when the Supreme Court — arguably breaching constitutional law against interference in parliamentary business — ruled that his government had given Queen Elizabeth II "illegal advice" when asking her to prorogue Parliament while he negotiated a deal.
That was followed by months of deadlock in the House of Commons, as more than 20 Conservative MPs rebelled and joined the opposition in a bid to reverse the vote to leave the EU. Johnson dealt with then rebels ruthlessly and outmaneuvered his opponents, despite losing his governing majority. He eventually forced a general election in December 2019, winning an 80-seat landslide majority on his promise to "get Brexit done."
But the Tories' post-election honeymoon period was abruptly cut short by the arrival of the COVID-19 virus in the UK in January 2020. Johnson's initial policy of low-key monitoring and hygiene measures was criticized as complacent by the opposition, while the lockdown imposed in March that year was considered an overreaction by scores of Tory backbenchers, businesses, and many of the public.
The UK's vaccination program outstripped those of its European neighbors, however, and Johnson still boasts that his decision to end the lockdown earlier than other countries gave a head start to the economic recovery. But the post-COVID boom has now faltered thanks to the government's embargo on oil and gas imports from Russia and other backfiring sanctions in response to the conflict in Ukraine.
The lockdown itself prompted a series of scandals in Westminster. Johnson's top advisor Dominic Cummings was forced out in December 2020. He had survived the furor over a trip to his parents' farm in County Durham during the harshest period of lockdown, but then fell foul of internal battles at Downing Street. In June 2021, Health Secretary Matt Hancock was forced to resign after having an affair with a ministerial advisor — but only because their office snog broke social distancing rules.
Another sleaze row erupted in November 2021, after the government attempted to reverse the suspension of MP Owen Paterson for breaking cash-for-questions rules. The parliamentary motion was withdrawn after backbenchers rebelled, and the Liberal Democrats won Paterson's North Shropshire seat in a by-election after he stood down.
December 2021 brought the "Partygate" scandal, a drip-drip series of leaks to the media revealing after-hours staff drinking at Downing Street during the first two COVID-19 lockdowns. Johnson was eventually fined a paltry £50 for drinking a can of beer at a surprise birthday party in the Cabinet Room, but was also accused of a "failure of leadership and judgement" in senior civil servant Sue Gray's subsequent report.
Pincher by Name...
But it was the lurid sins of his own MPs that finally brought Johnson down. Since the last election, six Tory MPs have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct, from viewing porn to sexual assault and rape.
Delyn MP Rob Roberts had the whip withdrawn in May 2021 after a sexual harassment complaint by a male staffer was upheld by a parliamentary committee. In April this year, chief whip David Warburton was sacked over claims of cocaine abuse and groping by three women. The same month, Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan was jailed for the sexual assault against an underage boy in 2008.
Two more scandals hit in May: Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish resigned after he was spotted watching pornography on his mobile phone by a fellow backbencher during a Parliamentary debate, and another as-yet unnamed MP was arrested on suspicion of rape and other sexual offenses against men between 2002 and 2009.
The loss of Wakefield to Labour and Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats in June prompted an internal no-confidence vote against Johnson, which he survived by a narrow margin.
But the final straw was when last week, deputy chief whip Chris Pincher was suspended from the party for drunkenly groping two other men at a posh private members' club in central London. The Downing Street press team repeatedly changed their story on whether Johnson was aware of previous allegations against Pincher when he appointed him in his February reshuffle — leaving ministers struggling to defend the PM.
A spate of government resignations led by Sajid Javid as health secretary and Rishi Sunak as chancellor of the exchequer began on Tuesday evening, but it took Johnson 36 hours to accept defeat. The watershed may have been when his newly-appointed chancellor Nadhim Zahawi told the PM to go.
What Now in Westminster?
Johnson's resignation may allow the government to draw a line under the last seven months of scandals, but will it solve the real crises facing the country?
No Tory or opposition MPs have even questioned the sanctions on Moscow — in fact all support arming Ukraine to fight Russia to the bitter end.
The most likely political showdown now will be on whether to make a soft reentry into the EU, rejoining the single market or other structures. That could lead to a repeat of the parliamentary anarchy in the autumn of 2019, except this time a general election may not break the deadlock.
Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer hopes to become PM at the next election — if he isn't forced to resign over his own lockdown-flouting curry night scandal. But to do so he has put himself at odds with the pro-EU majority in his own party by declaring Brexit a done deal. While Starmer has claimed he will win concessions from Brussels on Northern Ireland by virtue of not being Boris, he has no ideas that haven't already been floated by the last two Tory governments.
Speculation that Theresa May could be brought back as caretaker PM only inspire a sense of deja vu.
US anti-war Blogger Larry Johnson believes his namesake's fall is just one in a domino chain of government crises and collapses caused by the proxy conflict with Russia.
"Here is my prediction–come the end of August, Boris Johnson and Olaf Scholz will be out of office and Vladimir Putin will be sitting pretty," the blogger wrote on Wednesday evening.
Johnson will be condemned by his many enemies for years to come, but may also be remembered for his facade of a scruffy and bumbling eccentric, his sense of humor, and his thundering put-downs to opposition party leaders at the weekly prime minister's questions.