Two West Suffolk Members of Parliament have resigned as the Prime Minister follows in their footsteps. James Cartlidge and Jo Churchill have resigned from their positions in the government after Chris Pincher MP assaulted two other members of parliament in a bar. These two resignations are a drop in the ocean of MPs resigning over the last 24 hours as over 50 MPs resign including high-ranking ministers Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak.
James Cartlidge, who resigned this morning July 7th, said “I have felt duty-bound to remain in post because of the very challenging situation in the Crown Court.” This came a day after he was saying ‘goodbye’ to Rishi Sunak as he resigned yesterday saying “I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning”. Today James Cartlidge said it’s impossible to continue as Courts’ Minister saying in his letter to the Prime Minister: “I took the view there had to be some semblance of Government in this crucial arm of our constitution. But the position is clearly untenable.”
As Courts’ Minister, I have felt duty bound to remain in post because of the very challenging situation in the Crown Court. But it’s clearly impossible to continue. pic.twitter.com/F0qbiA3MG9
— James Cartlidge MP 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 (@jcartlidgemp) July 7, 2022
Mr. Cartlidge followed Jo Churchill this morning as the DEFRA Minister resigned yesterday saying, on Twitter: “I have this morning tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister.” Ms. Churchill continued to say, “Recent events have shown integrity, competence, and judgment are all essential to the role of Prime Minister, while a jocular self-serving approach is bound to have its limitations.”
Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey remains sympathetic to the Prime Minister and has not resigned saying the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) “needs to be firing on all cylinders”, Ms. Coffey said she wanted to speak to the Prime Minister yesterday evening saying “I fully understand colleagues’ concerns and the very bad situation we are now in.” She continued to say that the government needs to keep moving to add “the wheels of government need, though, to keep turning, especially at DWP which helps the most vulnerable in society… with the cost-of-living payment beginning to be paid next week as part of our help for households.”
One minister, who urged Boris Johnson to resign, was sacked last night. Michael Gove was sacked by Boris Johnson; a No. 10 spokesperson told the BBC that “you can’t have a snake who is not with you on any of the big arguments who then gleefully tells the press the leader has to go”. The PM rang the leveling-up minister to say he was sacked on Wednesday evening.
Science Minister George Freeman has said the PM needs to apologise to the crown saying “Boris Johnson needs to hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty and advise her to call for a caretaker Prime Minister.” He continues to say that the caretaker PM needs to “take over today so that Ministers can get back to work and we can choose a new Conservative Leader to try and repair the damage and rebuild trust.”