When Boris Johnson submitted his resignation on Thursday, for many across the UK who are now in their 40s and 50s, it was seeing their fourth prime minister who is being forced to resign due to lack of support from their own party.
For that age group the widely publicized pictures of a tearful Margaret Thatcher staring out of the car window while leaving the No. 10 Downing Street is etched in the minds of many who live in the UK and political observers across the world.
Boris and Thatcher were not the only leaders who were forced to exit as they lost support. Johnson’s predecessors David Cameron, Theresa May and Tony Blair resigned after losing support from their cabinet minister.s
“We’re leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we’re happy to leave the UK in a very much better state than when we came here,” Thatcher said in her famous last presser outside the No. 10.
Tony Blair, who also was the UK prime minister for a decade, resigned in 2007 after blowback from the UK involvement in the Iraq war. Like Boris Johnson, several of his cabinet members resigned.
But for Blair, there was no press conference outside the No. 10 rather the prime minister went to the Trimdon Labour Club where he apologized for the times the ‘fell short’.
“This country is a blessed country. The British are special. The world knows it, we know it, this is the greatest country on Earth… I may have been wrong – that’s your call. But I did what I thought was right for our country,” Blair said.
David Cameron’s exit was triggered by the Leave campaign which saw the UK take the initial step to leave the EU after voting for ‘leave’ following the Brexit campaign.
The result shocked Cameron and saw him resign from the position of the UK prime minister six years into his tenure.
“I was absolutely clear about my belief that Britain is stronger, safer and better off inside the EU. I made clear the referendum was about this, and this alone, not the future of any single politician, including myself,” Cameron was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
“But the British people made a different decision to take a different path. As such I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction,” he further added.
Boris Johnson’s direct predecessor Theresa May, who spent slightly more time in the No. 10 than him, was also forced to resign following insubordination from her fellow MPs.
Handed the responsibility to deliver Brexit and when her 10-point “new Brexit deal” was presented in the House of Commons, it was deemed unacceptable by her own party and was also disliked by the Labour Party for whom the deal was initially designed.
“It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit,” May said ahead of her departure.
(with inputs from the Guardian)
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