- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared on Saturday he intends to remain in power until the middle of the next decade, despite calls for him to quit, making him the longest-serving leader in the country's history | conservative){kind=link}
Kigali (The Times Groupe)- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared on Saturday he intends to remain in power until the middle of the next decade, despite calls for him to quit, making him the longest-serving leader in the country’s history. conservative
Boris Johnson survived a vote of confidence by Conservative lawmakers earlier this month, in which 41% voted to oust him. He is being investigated for deliberately misleading the House of Commons.
Conservative candidates lost two parliamentary by-elections held on Friday to replace Conservative incumbents who resigned after being convicted of sexual assault and watching pornography in the House of Commons, respectively.
As a result of a scandal over illegal parties held at Downing Street during Coronavirus lockdowns, Johnson’s broad voter appeal which helped him win a large parliamentary majority in December 2019 may be fraying.
For another year, Conservative lawmakers cannot challenge Johnson formally, but dissatisfaction or resignations by senior ministers could undermine his position.
With inflation at a 40-year high, Britain is also experiencing its deepest cost-of-living crisis in decades.
After the by-election losses, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned and former party leader Michael Howard said Johnson should go.
To reduce regional economic disparities and make changes to Britain’s legal and immigration systems, Johnson said he would serve a third term as prime minister and remain in office until the middle of the 2030s.
“At the moment I am thinking actively about the third term and, you know, what could happen then. But I will review it when I get to it,” Johnson told reporters in Rwanda on the final day of a visit for a Commonwealth summit.
Asked what he meant, Johnson said: “About the third term … this is the mid-2030s.”
In order for Johnson to call the next national election by December 2024, he must win a third election by 2029.
Until early 2031, he would become the longest continuously serving British prime minister since Robert Banks Jenkinson, the Earl of Liverpool, who served from 1812 to 1827.
According to Johnson, he did not expect to face another internal challenge within his party, and he faulted the by-election defeats partly on months of media coverage of lockdown parties in power.
“People were fed up of hearing about things I had stuffed up, or allegedly stuffed up, or whatever, this endless – completely legitimate, but endless – churn of news,” he said.
He rejected the notion that he should change his behavior earlier on Saturday, according to BBC radio.
“If you’re saying you want me to undergo some sort of psychological transformation, I think that our listeners would know that that … is not going to happen.”
In The Times newspaper, Johnson declined to comment on a report that he planned to have a donor fund a 150,000-pound ($184,000) treehouse for his son at his state-provided country home.
The story comes months after his party was fined for failing to accurately report a donation that helped fund the refurbishment of his Downing Street apartment.
“I won’t comment on non-existent objects,” Johnson replied when asked if a donor’s money would be used to build the treehouse. power
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