UK: Welsh Secretary Simon Hart Resigns

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart has announced his resignation from UK's government, joining the list of British ministers and senior officials calling on Johnson to step down.

"Colleagues have done their best in private and public to help you turn the ship around but it is with sadness that l feel we have passed the point where this is possible," Hart said in a letter to Johnson.

It is worth mentioning that, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson affirmed, on Wednesday, that he was not going to resign, adding that the last thing the country needed was a national election.

“I am not going to step down and the last thing this country needs, frankly, is an election,” Johnson told a parliamentary committee when asked to confirm he would not seek to call an election rather than resign if he lost a vote of confidence.

The Prime Minister has been hit by a wave of resignations from the British government in protest at his leadership. The fast-moving stream of quits came after British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak resigned Tuesday evening, indicating that the government should be run “properly, competently and seriously.”

In like manner, Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned in protest against Johnson’s leadership, which has been beset by controversy and scandal in recent months.

Nevertheless, a number of ministers expressed their loyalty to Johnson, including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

During his trip to Kigali in late June, Johnson asserted that it would be “crazy” for him to resign if the Conservatives lost both byelections.

The Prime Minister stated: “Come on, it was only a year ago that we won the Hartlepool by-election, that everybody thought was… you know, we hadn’t won Hartlepool for, I can’t remember when the Tory party last won Hartlepool – a long time. I don’t think it ever had.”