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Boris Johnson Vows To Carry On After Wave Of Resignations; Ukraine Tells Donetsk Residents To Evacuate; Shanghai Mass Testing After A Handful Of Cases; Michael Gove Fired. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 06, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Just a few moments here on Wall Street. The Dow is just barely up after being flat for most of the day. You see it there, at first people were not enthusiastic about the Fed minutes and then not so much.
This was the Federal Reserve minutes from the last meeting in June. The Fed continuing to insist that the likelihood of tighter monetary policy is real. As you see there, the market is not getting much direction.
That is the closing bell, we want to have a look at those Dow 30 components for a minute. Just to see what's been going on. The Travelers, there is the Dow, coming close to close. It is agreeing it's a win for now. Chevron, though, we have to say at the bottom after oil prices tumbled ever so slightly after yesterday.
Although, again, oil hovering around the $100 mark. That is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Paula Newton in New York, we got that closing bell, ringing in Wall Street. Right, now Isa Soares, stay with us, she will have the breaking news from Britain with that special coverage of the political crisis unfolding at Westminster.
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ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, everyone. You are watching CNN. I'm Isa Soares. We are coming to you live from outside the British Houses of Parliament in London, where it is just after 9 p.m.
Boris Johnson said he will not step down as British prime minister, even after several senior ministers urged him to resign earlier at 10 Downing Street.
A source tells CNN the U.K. home secretary she told Johnson the general view of the party is he needs to leave.
Dozens of cabinet ministers and government officials have already quit. This uprising comes after numerous scandals hit Johnson and his party. Most recently, the prime minister acknowledged it was a mistake to appoint Chris Pincher to his government. Chris Pincher was let go last week after being accused of groping two men.
Speaking to lawmakers earlier, Johnson said that now is not the right time to step down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Frankly Mr. Speaker the job of the prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he's been handed a colossal mandate, is to keep going. And that's what I'm going to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, the number of cabinet resignations if you are keeping a tally has been dramatically increasing for the last two days, particularly in the last few hours. At last count, we have 37 cabinet ministers and aides who have stepped down.
That includes the finance minister, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who resigned roughly this time yesterday. Speaking in Parliament a few hours ago, Sajid Javid said the mounting scandals just became overwhelming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAJID JAVID, FORMER U.K. HEALTH SECRETARY: We have this Sue Gray report. A new Downing Street team. I continue to give the benefit of the doubt. And now this week again, we have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we have all been told.
And at some point we have to conclude that enough is enough. I believe that point is now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Bianca Nobilo is here with me to make sense of what is going on.
We are trying to keep track of all this. It all happened rather quickly after the two resignations from the two leading cabinet ministers. Explain to our international audience where we could see in the next 24 to 48 hours.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: We may see more resignations. But I think the momentum peaked midday today. It started today with MPs, analysts saying he could probably last until next week if not beyond.
Then in the middle of the day we had this spate of resignations, 30, 31, the prime minister under immense pressure, people said he might not last the night. Now he has a little bit more breathing room.
The 1922 committee will have elections on Monday, they will have a new executive ad that may be the opportunity choose to change the rules and have another confidence vote. That could happen as early as Monday or Tuesday next week.
SOARES: Can he survive until then?
NOBILO: Yes he. Can and all indications are at the moment that he will try to. He's clinging on.
And MPs that I've spoken to, those who are inside Downing Street right, now that his most loyal allies, like Homeland Security Priti Patel, Michael Gove, allies close with him, are all saying he cannot go on like this.
He has received that information. What we are hearing, he's defiant. He wants to remain as prime minister.
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NOBILO: He wants to fight. On he wants to pursue the agenda he has for the country. He keeps repeating this notion that he has a mandate to deliver for the people, harking back to 2019. But that has changed dramatically. And he is bleeding support, he is hemorrhaging ministers, he doesn't have the mandate to continue.
SOARES: You are looking at what has been a very troubling 24 hours. Have a look at what has been showing to be the end of the road for Boris Johnson. Look at this.
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JOHNSON: I abhor bullying and abuse of power anywhere, in Parliament, this party or in any other party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Boris Johnson's seemingly unsinkable premiership once again on the rocks. But this time it is different.
JAVID: Cutting the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Trust in Johnson's word almost completely eroded, more than 2 dozen members of Parliament resigning from government within 24 hours, including two of his most prominent cabinet ministers, health secretary Sajid Javid, saying, I can no longer in good conscience continue serving in this government.
Rishi Sunak reasons the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously.
Johnson and his office is now being held to account over the handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by a member of government after a top civil servant broke ground to accuse him of lying about not knowing of the previous official complaint of alleged sexual misconduct before promoting the member of Parliament involved.
Johnson said since he did know about the allegations.
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KEIR STARMER, U.K. LABOUR LEADER: For a week, he has been defending his decision to promote a sexual predator. Every day the lines he's forced them to take have been untrue. And now he wants them to go out and say that he simply forgot.
JOHNSON: I greatly regret that he continued in office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Just last month, the prime minister was booed in public before narrowly surviving a confidence vote by members of his own party, following the latest scandal, Partygate.
Now more letter voicing no confidence in the prime minister are going in as his members of Parliament suggest changes to the rules of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee, so another vote can be held before parliamentary recess.
The question for many now appears to be not a matter of if but how soon his premiership will end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Given Boris Johnson's historical stubbornness and intransigence, it does not appear he's likely to change his mind. He is digging in his heels tonight, saying he doesn't want to resign. He wants to continue.
It's hard to think of anything that will persuade him to resign of his own accord. He will need to get pushed out. That's what people know him the best are saying.
SOARES: Give us a sense of the mood in the country right now. We were talking, a month or so ago, saying he won't last till the end of the year. This is coming much quicker. We have seen crisis after crisis after crisis.
NOBILO: I think, unusually, because these two things don't always tally up, the building behind us is a microcosm for the country at large. The MPs that we have been speaking to today have been telling of us they feel, first of all, a sense of depression and despondency that it has got to this, the government has been so mired in scandal they have not been able to deliver any policy.
There's definitely that and frustration because the prime minister has so much resistance. All these resignations, things that would usually persuade a prime minister to resign, that's the typical process.
But that's not happening. So they're angry. And occasionally, sparkles of optimism from certain MPs, saying, now is the time we are going to have a new leader. And that's something to get excited about. But that is dwindling.
SOARES: On the resignations, we're talking the two biggest positions he's filled, which is Chancellor of the Exchequer and those in charge of health at such a crucial time when we are talking about inflation, stagflation but also the state of the National Health Service. And the backlog of course. We've got COVID-19, of course.
Does he feel he can fill these positions?
NOBILO: I don't know what he believes but he may not be able to fill them.
I'm not talking about the most prominent positions but all the junior ministerial ranks, private secretaries that are required for it to function effectively. I'm not sure he has the numbers to fill all those vacancies. Even though those jobs come at a slight salary bump, it is about these MPs' integrity.
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NOBILO: What would they be comfortable, going to sleep at night, knowing that they've done?
Are they putting their country and their party before their self interest?
That is the question that resigning cabinet ministers and the opposition are putting to Conservatives on the benches today. That's where people have to consider, when they make that decision, the prime minister is asking me to take a role. The government is in disarray.
Do I do it or not?
SOARES: Thank you.
It wasn't a warm welcome for Boris Johnson when he addressed lawmakers early today at Prime Minister's Questions. Have a look.
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SOARES (voice-over): And it didn't get much better from there. The U.K. opposition Labour leader used some choice words to describe the prime minister's leadership.
KEIR STARMER, U.K. LABOUR LEADER: The only thing he's delivered is chaos. He is only in power because he's been propped up for months by a corrupted party defending the indefensible.
In the middle of a crisis, doesn't the country deserve better than a Z list cast of nodding dogs?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: The leader of the Scottish National Party was no more forgiving. He made it clear that he thinks Johnson days in the U.K.'s top job are numbered.
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IAIN BLACKFORD, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY: A few weeks ago, I compared the prime minister to Monty Python's Black Knight. Actually turns out I was wrong. He's actually the dead parrot (ph).
Whether he knows it or not, he's now an ex-prime minister. He will leave behind two deeply damaging legacies. I hope the dishonesty of his leadership follows them out of the Downing Street door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: While opposition leaders may be predicting the end of Boris Johnson's premiership, a group of Conservative lawmakers just might have bought him a couple more days in office.
The 1922 committee is a group of influential Conservative MPs who have the power to call for a confidence vote in the British prime minister. They did that exactly one month ago. If you remember, Johnson survived; under current rules he should be immune from another vote for 12 months.
But the group is reportedly considering rewriting its own rules so it could call for another vote on Johnson's leadership. That could come as early as Monday.
We are now joined by former British Conservative MP, Alistair Burt.
Thank you very much for joining us. This is very much like a government on the ropes.
What are you hearing from inside 10 Downing Street?
ALISTAIR BURT, FORMER BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MP: What we hear is that although a group of cabinet ministers have decided during the day that the prime minister's situation has become impossible and with their seniority and their previous loyalty to Boris Johnson, they carry a great deal of political weight.
They had decided to see him to say, we think, Prime Minister, you should now resign. You no longer have the confidence of the party. But this is being met by defiance and resistance from the prime minister, as he seeks to dissuade that he can in fact go on.
At Number 10 at the moment is a standoff between senior colleagues and the prime minister.
SOARES: A standoff that will last until when?
You think it will go all the way until Monday?
You think there will be a vote of confidence?
Is that how Boris Johnson wants it to end?
BURT: Well, it will certainly inevitably end with Johnson leaving. The best thing for the Conservative Party and the country is that it is done quickly. The prime minister has lost support from some of his closest supporters in the past. He has lost the support of a number of party members throughout the country. And the last two or three days have been absolutely disastrous and
shown a collapse in his authority and everything else. He has lost a large chunk of ministers out of his government. He cannot physically govern the country anymore if he does not have a ministerial team.
So the best thing is for it end sooner rather than later. I cannot predict how long he will hold out. If the cabinet ministers who've seen him tonight decide to resign, as frankly they should, because if they told him they lack confidence in him, they cannot continue in their roles and sit around the table.
Then if that's the case, what they must do, that would then force the issue and bring the matter to an end.
SOARES: Like you said, he's sounding incredibly defiant and determined to fight this at least.
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SOARES: Explain to our international viewers why he is holding on, while he is still clearly bleeding out?
BURT: Well, I think it is very basic. The man has spent his life wanting to be prime minister. In some corner of your soul, you always believe you can turn things around, no matter how difficult they are.
The reality of his situation is there is just no support left. Constitutionally, we have a situation, where Parliament can remove him. If the members of the party removed him as party leader, he will no longer be prime minister and that may very well be within their gift next week.
But many would rather it did not come to that. If he sees what the situation is now. Whether the prime minister believes he's got something up his sleeve for the next couple of days that would turn it around, I don't know.
But it is defying reality, I'm afraid. He should recognize that having lost the support of those that have been close to him, it really would be best for him and the country if he now resigned.
SOARES: Alasdair, today's PMQs, we heard at various times the question of integrity, of truth, of honesty.
Do you recognize your own party right now?
BURT: I do recognize my party, absolutely. It is they who have made this an issue. What's your listeners and viewers may or may not be aware of is that this was brought to a head because, after one or two examples of concern about whether or not ministers have been briefed accurately by the Number 10 machine, they have been caught out in relation to what appears to have been a blatant untruth.
Ministers have been forced to talk about an issue, denying the prime minister's awareness or responsibility for a particular issue, having been assured at the highest level that that was the circumstance, only to find out that this was untrue.
Ministers' own reputation have been badly damaged by saying things to the press under the belief that they were true and then finding out that they were not true. And they should've known this. They should have been told this.
So this issue of integrity, which has dogged the prime minister for some time, now because Partygate and other examples where the truth has not been clear, the Conservative Party has recognized that this is what they want to reinstate. And sadly, it can only be done if the prime minister is no longer there.
SOARES: The longer this drags on for, the more damaging it will be, no doubt, for your party.
BURT: That is quite right. Opponents will say it is attached to the party, not the individual; whereas if the prime minister goes, Conservative Party members can say it was very much associated with a particular group of people around the prime minister, the Number 10 operation which is badly flawed.
Then we can reset. The truth is that that issue will in time be less important to the British people than other issues that are facing them, whether it's the cost of living crisis, energy prices, the issue in Ukraine, everything else.
But those issues are not getting a hearing at the moment because of domination of the prime minister's personality issue is so important. That's why the government needs to settle this quickly and then turn to the other issues.
Then it will be a political fight. Opponents will say, you brought this on yourself. The Conservative Party will say, well, look what we're doing now. That's the fight to come.
SOARES: Always great to get your insight, thank you very much, sir.
Still to come tonight, thank you, still to come tonight, Russia steps up attacks on the Donbas. But Ukraine says it is fighting back and putting up fierce resistance.
Plus, we continue our coverage of the turmoil on Downing Street and what may lie ahead for prime minister Boris Johnson. It is 9:20 here in London. Very good evening to you.
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SOARES: Now Russian forces are pushing west in the Donbas, focusing their fire on the Ukraine's Donetsk region, after seizing virtually all of Luhansk. Ukraine says it's putting up fierce resistance, repeating an urgent call for the evacuation of all the civilians in the Donetsk region as that fighting escalates.
Russia is intensifying strikes on the city of Slovyansk. Ukraine says that at least two people were killed in the latest shelling. CNN's Alex Marquardt following all the develops for us from Kharkiv tonight.
Alex, Ukraine controls a little bit less of half of Donetsk.
What are you hearing?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You really get a sense of the real concern and fear about what's going to happen next in Donetsk, when you hear what local officials are saying.
That is a call for all residents to leave the Donetsk region. They have said that they are going to be putting on more carriages onto local trains to help people evacuate. Currently, the population of Donetsk outside of Russian control is around 20 percent of what it was before the war, more than 300,000 people.
So as Russia consolidates its positions in Luhansk, which, of course, is the other part of Donbas, it is clearly shifting the focus to Donetsk. That, Isa, is where a volunteer paramedic was held captive by Russian forces for more than three months.
She had been hailed as a hero, someone who treated both civilians and troops on the front lines. During those three months, she was cut off from contact with her family and held in horrible conditions, she said, which she likened to a gulag.
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MARQUARDT (voice-over): In this Russian propaganda film, Yuliia Paevska is marched, hooded and handcuffed into a dark interrogation room. The hood yanked off harsh light blinding her.
YULIIA PAEVSKA, "TAIRA," VOLUNTEER PARAMEDIC: (Speaking foreign language).
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Paevska, who is Ukrainian, goes by the nickname Taira and is a famous medic known across Ukraine. Until very recently, she was a prisoner of war, held by Russian and pro-Russian forces made to appear in the propaganda film which accuses her of harvesting organs and compares her to Hitler.
After three months in captivity, Taira, who we met today with her husband was freed in a prisoner exchange. But in her first sit down interview since then, it's clear the wounds are still fresh.
PAEVSKA (from captions): There was physical abuse and psychological pressure. The extreme psychological pressure did not stop for a minute all these three months. Constantly you are told that you are a fascist, a Nazi.
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MARQUARDT: It sounds like torture. PAEVSKA: It was, a physical also.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Taira says she was deprived of food for days, beaten and threatened with a death penalty.
PAEVSKA (from captions): They kept interrogating but at some point, they realized that they would not get anything out of me. They threw me into solitary confinement into a dungeon without a mattress, on a metal bunk.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): When the war started in February, she headed to the brutal fight in Mariupol, capturing dramatic video on a body camera she wore. In March, as the Russians closed in, the memory card was smuggled out by journalists in a tampon. Then at a checkpoint, Taira was recognized and taken prisoner.
PAEVSKA (from captions): I asked to be allowed to make a call, call my husband. They said you watched too many American films. There will be no call.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): She says she was told lies about Russian battlefield successes and used against her will as a character for Russian media to claim that their forces are fighting neo-Nazis.
PAEVSKA (from captions): They are absolute victims of propaganda, of a ruthless propaganda that completely destroys their ability to think critically. If it were not for this, this conflict would not exist at all, I am absolutely sure of it.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): It may be some time before Taira returns to the front lines. She also wants to train for next year's Invictus Games for wounded veterans as the reality sets in that this will be a long war.
PAEVSKA (from captions): This is an absolutely ruthless regime that wants to dominate the world. They told me that the whole world only had to submit to Greater Russia and "this is your destiny. You have to accept, just stop resisting."
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MARQUARDT: "Just stop resisting."
That, Isa, is the message she says her captors gave her. Of course, the Ukrainians have become known for their fierce resistance with much resistance, some setbacks, including the loss of Luhansk.
They will need all the resistance they can muster in order to push back the Russian forces in Donetsk. But a Ukrainian official says what they need right now is more help from the West, more military aid. That is what President Zelenskyy says Ukrainians will need in order to take back the Donbas. Isa.
SOARES: Incredible resistance as well as defiance, something you and I have seen throughout since February 24th. Thank you very much, Alex. Now the World Health Organization says global COVID-19 cases have gone
up by 30 percent in the last two weeks. This new surge is driven by two Omicron subvariants spreading across Europe and the United States.
The WHO also says it's keeping a close eye on another version of Omicron which has been identified in India. And in China, over 30 million are under partial lockdown. Selina Wang is in Beijing with the details.
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SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: China's northwestern city, home to 13 million people, announced sweeping restrictions that would partially shut down the city. And underscores yet again that China's zero COVID strategy is here to stay.
This is China's first outbreak of the BA.5.2 subvariant. This is the highly new transmissible subvariant that is quickly dominating the U.S. and Europe. According to researchers, the strain appears to escape antibody responses from people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted.
Chinese officials said the restrictions will last for seven days in Xi'an. Entertainment videos, bars, movie theaters, gyms, libraries and museums were all closed. Restaurant dining and large gatherings were suspended.
And the schools were ordered to start summer holidays early. Authorities also sealed in nine residential neighborhoods. All of this brings back painful memories for Xi'an residents.
The city was under strict lockdown between December and January. During that time, there was shock and anger over food shortages and heartbreaking scenes of critical patients being denied medical care.
Meanwhile, Beijing says it has found three cases of the BA.5.2 subvariant in the capital. Starting on July 11th, the capital will require people to show proof of vaccination in order to enter any public venue.
Here in Beijing, already, we're required to show a recent COVID test and scan our health codes in order to enter any public area. And meanwhile in Shanghai, where residents have only just emerged from a brutal two month lockdown, authorities ordered mass testing for 12 of its 16 districts.
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WANG: This is in response to just a handful of new infections -- Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.
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SOARES: Still to come tonight, Boris on the brink. More on prime minister Boris Johnson's fight for political survival when we come back. You are watching CNN. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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SOARES: British prime minister Boris Johnson insists he's not going to step down, despite the crisis engulfing his government. For the past hour, Mr. Johnson has been meeting at Downing Street with his remaining cabinet ministers.
In the past 24 hours, he has lost almost 40 ministers and aides, including his chancellor as well as his health secretary, you see on your screen. Former supporters are calling him dishonest and now demanding he accept his scandal ridden leadership is over.
It has been a busy 48 hours. It has been a momentous 24 hours for the British prime minister. Let's take a look back at how we got here, starting with Tuesday's surprise resignations.
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SOARES: We start with breaking news. In the last hour, the U.K. prime minister has suffered not one but two devastating blows. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid posted on Twitter within moments of each other, saying they could no longer work for a government mired in scandal.
SAJID JAVID, FORMER U.K. HEALTH SECRETARY: We have the Sue Gray report, a new Downing Street team. I continue to give the benefit of the doubt. Now this week again, we have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we all have been told. At some point, we have to conclude that enough is enough. I believe that point is now.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: They weren't the only ones to step down. U.K. assistant general Alex Chalk (ph) said he was resigning with great sadness but he can't defend the indefensible. Several junior ranking government officials have also quit and the Conservative Party vice chair announced live on television that he, too, planned to leave his post.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don't think a prime minister has not only just my support but he doesn't have identical support of the party or indeed of the country anymore. I think for that reason he should step down.
FOSTER: His office is moving quickly to fill those vacant posts, Nadhim Zahawi, previously the secretary of state for education, has been appointed chancellor and Downing Street chief of staff Steve Barkley is the new health secretary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think this prime minister has a chance (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- well, because he's determined to deliver for this country.
KEIR STARMER, U.K. LABOUR LEADER: The only thing he delivering is chaos. Anyone quitting now, after defending all that, hasn't got a shred of integrity.
Mr. Speaker, isn't this the first recorded case of the sinking ships fleeing the rats?
IAIN BLACKFORD, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY: Whether he knows it or not, he's an acting prime minister, he is no longer the next prime minister. He will leave behind two deeply damaging legacies. I hope the dishonesty of his leadership follows him out of the Downing Street door.
JOHNSON: Frankly, Mr. Speaker, the job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he's been handed a colossal mandate, is to keep going. And that's what I'm going to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, 24 hours. The press association is reporting that one of the most senior members of the cabinet has been fired. Michael Gove urged Johnson to step down earlier. It seems now he has gotten some revenge. Nic Robertson is outside Downing Street.
This is quite stunning, considering how close these two. Were
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You have just been playing the clip over the last 24 hours. But this the, sacking of Michael Gove by the prime minister, even the information being clarified here, as that clip, you were just playing was running, is happening minute by minute.
Michael Gove, who has been politically relatively quiet over the past few months, sort of stuck his head over the parapet to be bold enough to use his long historic connections that have had ups and downs, friends, frenemies, political allies, political partners over the years with Boris Johnson, to say, look, in all considered opinion of his political experience, and Gove has a lot of political experience and carries a lot of political weight, this is the right time, Prime Minister, to step down.
We've heard Boris Johnson several times today, robustly in Parliament, robustly digging in, at a two-hour question session, grilling by committee this afternoon, saying he would stay on.
He has given every indication that if there was another vote of confidence in him, he would stay on and fight that. And here this is an indication of it. Not just earlier today replacing those two significant ministers, who stepped down 24 hours ago, but now removing another key minister for stepping out of line.
We know that this list of people who have stepped down from senior government positions, from mid- and high-level government positions, the list has grown longer through the day. But Johnson has just added another big post to fill to all of that, according to the Press Association.
Various cabinet members have been coming in, some of them, one of them at least spoke to journalists coming out, saying she had given her support to the prime minister. She said she and others still supporting the prime minister.
But the understanding is that the home secretary, Priti Patel, has gone in and told the prime minister of the general feeling among the Conservative Party, that his position as prime minister and leader of the party was not one that can be sustained.
So the message has been coming but the prime minister's rebuttal to that and his message has been equally clear. And it's clear in the sacking of Michael Gove today, the prime minister, Boris Johnson plans to continue longer.
SOARES: And, Nic, on Michael Gove and reports we've been getting in that Michael Gove has been fired after urging the prime minister to step down, we have been hearing time and time again that the prime minister values loyalty.
What does this tell you, this move by the prime minister?
Maybe we will see a reshuffle.
[16:40:00]
SOARES: But what does this tell you about what the next 24 to 48 hours may hold, how he may handle this?
To me, it looks like he's preparing to fight on.
ROBERTSON: The leader of the opposition Keir Starmer said in Parliament today he's bringing chaos. And there is a sense that this now rotating door on key positions, people stepping down, because they can no longer support the prime minister, people being pushed out, because they clearly don't support the prime minister but were still in jobs.
The question that you're asking really makes me think, going back to 2019, the December election, there the prime minister calling the election back then. He expunged from the party a number of senior Conservative figures, because they said they wouldn't support him over his position on Brexit.
There was within the Conservative Party, clear instructions, it appeared, that the prime minister didn't want anyone standing as an MP who didn't support the prime minister. We are seeing another iteration of it.
What does it mean and what does it look like?
Historically, politically, it leaves the prime minister isolated, with a smaller coterie of allies, to the point where people around him no longer feel they can tell the truth.
This was something that, in hindsight, was a criticism of Margaret Thatcher in her long tenure in Number 10, that eventually she got rid of so many people that might have told her she was wrong at an early stage that she ended up being isolated.
History, politically, tells us this will ultimately isolate the prime minister, while he may feel today it reinforces his position. He's digging in.
Nic Robertson, outside 10 Downing Street, I suspect it's going to be a long night. Thanks very much, Nic.
Michael Gove, one of the cabinet ministers with the Conservative Party, has been fired after suggesting that Boris Johnson step down. We've got 30-something resignations are still. But the numbers are just snowballing.
Meanwhile still to come tonight, some are calling the cabinet resignations a welcome change. We look at what's the new chancellor could mean for Britain's economy. That is next.
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SOARES: Back now to our main story tonight. British prime minister Boris Johnson under increasing pressure to resign. Johnson's fate hangs on the line as dozens of his cabinet members have stepped down.
We are now at 41 resignations. Michael Gove was fired after he told Johnson to quit. Johnson got booed today in the House of Commons but he is vowing to fight for his position, even as key allies, including chancellor Rishi Sunak, have quit.
Johnson replaced Rishi Sunak with Nadhim Zahawi, who's already said he'll consider tax cuts to aid Britain's struggling economy.
The political turmoil on Downing Street comes as Britain battles a dire cost of the inflation crisis, highest in decades, and 15 years of stagnant wages have now left low income families the most vulnerable. Anna Stewart joins me now.
This is not the time to be having political turmoil, when there is so much, so many pressures already on the economy.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Inflation topped 9 percent at the last reading. It is expected to hit 11 percent by the end of the year. The economy of the first quarter is frankly flatlining. It may now be shrinking with a contraction for March and April in the latest readings. And the political uncertainty now has seen the pound slump to a two-year low against the dollar.
The pound will not go very far. But that's for people who can go on holiday. Frankly, looking at all the people that won't be able to pay their bills or struggle to buy food in the coming months, the cost of living crisis is severe.
The Office of Budget Responsibility said the public is facing the biggest drop in living standard since records began. Energy bills are set to go up again in autumn. This is a time when you need strong government to tackle these issues.
Rishi Sunak yesterday, in his letter, said just how the united the government is when it comes to the economy.
He said, "Our people know that if something is too good to be true, then it's not true. They need to know, while there is a path to a better future, it is not an easy one. In preparation for our proposed joint speech on the economy next week, it has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different."
Reading between the lines, Rishi Sunak, the outgoing chancellor, saw the tax rises were a necessary evil to help bring the economy back on track. Boris Johnson wants the tax cuts, a much more politically popular measure. And the new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi very much said that tax cuts are key to getting the economy back on track.
However, Isa, how long will this chancellor be in position?
That really depends on the prime minister, given the way the resignations that continue through the night, you have to wonder if it's days or weeks.
SOARES: Indeed, especially as we have been hearing in the U.K. that some within his own party are already trying to convince him to call it quits. But now we heard, in the last 20 minutes, that Michael Gove has also gone. He has been fired.
Anna Stewart there for us, thanks very much, Anna.
We'll have much more after a very short break.
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SOARES: Let's return now to our top story.
British prime minister Boris Johnson's government is in chaos. Another confidence vote and Mr. Johnson could come within days. On Monday the 1922 committee, a group of Conservative MPs, is electing a new executive. They will then decide whether or not to change the rules and have yet another confidence vote.
Mr. Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote just last month in fact. And the resignations keep going up. We are now at 42 resignations so far.
Giles Kenningham is the former head of press for Theresa May.
Thank you for being on the show. Give me a sense of what you think is happening behind those black doors at 10 Downing Street tonight.
GILES KENNINGHAM, FORMER HEAD OF PRESS FOR THERESA MAY: I think it is quite an extraordinarily unprecedented situation, where the prime minister is not facing reality. He doesn't want to face reality.
You've got a situation where his authority has got completely undermined. More than half the parliamentary party wants him out the door. You've got government departments, where they haven't got ministers at the moment, which means crucial government business and legislation cannot be done.
And he refuses to accept reality. The only take out of all of this is it looks terrible to the rest of the world. It's terrible for financial markets. It's terrible for the domestic agenda. This is taking up all the government's bailiwicks (ph) so nothing else can be done.
I think the conventional wisdom is the question of when, not if. But the question for the prime minister is, does he want to go with a dignified exit or is he looking to pursue a scorched Earth policy on the way out?
SOARES: Well, what we have been hearing is that those closest in his cabinet are behind 10 Downing Street in trying to convince him that he is running out of road. He seems -- he sounds defiant. As the former head of press for Theresa May, you've been in that position. You've faced these pressures.
Why do you think he is deciding not to bow out in a dignified way, which is what we saw with Theresa May?
KENNINGHAM: And David Cameron. He's obviously taken the view that he's got nothing to lose. But actually, he has. If he carries on like, this he's going to lose the goodwill of the Conservative Party.
If he carries on like this, it is going to do damage to the country, in terms of the financial markets, the domestic agenda being rolled out. You have to start questioning the motives. The office of the prime minister is bigger than any individual who steps into it. Whoever steps into it, holds it temporarily until they pass it on to the next one.
Let's be very careful here. He has lost the political support of his party. He should do the right thing and stand to one side. Ultimately, the Tory Party can recover from this. If Boris Johnson carries on like this, you have to question whether he will.
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SOARES: A stunning scene right now. I remember one MP saying today that Boris Johnson is a mixture of Teflon and rubber.
What does that tell you about his character?
KENNINGHAM: You have to start questioning, what's he in this for?
Is it all about clinging on to power?
Or is it about doing something, public service, doing something for the greater good in this country?
Really, there is nothing he can do now in his role as prime minister. He is a lame duck prime minister. His authority has been undermined. Therefore, he should go and let someone new come in, have a fresh mandate.
Someone could come in and the Tories could still win the next election. You've got a weak opposition. You've got a Labour leader who isn't loved by the public. The Labour leader in the polls has been due to a Tory collapse or a Labour revival. He needs to do the right thing.
At the moment, he seems to be -- it's all about Boris Johnson, not what is good for the country and good for clear, decisive government.
SOARES: Even as the walls clearly cave in. We are now at 42 resignations. Giles Kenningham, thank you for taking the time to speak to us.
Thank you very much for your company tonight. I'm Isa Soares. Do stay with us. Our special coverage from Westminster continues. I'll be here in just a few minutes.
