UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns

An ill-timed pinch by a man named Pincher meant the end for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — as the man likened by admirers and enemies alike to the Biblical figure Lazarus tried to weather one scandal too many.

The final straw proved to be revelations about Johnson’s awareness of complaints against Chris Pincher, the Conservative Party’s deputy chief whip who stepped down June 30 after allegations he groped two men at a private club.

Johnson’s office initially said he knew nothing of similar allegations made against Pincher in 2019, when the disgraced pol worked at the Foreign Office. By July 4, a spokesman said Johnson did know of the allegations — but they were “either resolved or did not progress to a formal complaint.”

However, in a devastating letter made public the following day, a former top civil servant at the Foreign Office said Johnson “was briefed in person” about an internal investigation that upheld the 2019 complaints against Pincher. The best response the PM’s spin doctors could offer was to say that he had forgotten the briefing.

That reversal was too much to bear for several key members of government, including Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

“[T]he public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously,” Sunak said in his resignation letter. “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

Javid told Johnson the party needed “humility, grip and a new direction” but “it is clear this situation will not change under your leadership.”

As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Johnson had vowed to “keep going,” but the ongoing departures from government coupled with entreaties from other Cabinet colleagues — the “men in gray suits” behind the resignations of past Conservative prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May — were too much to ignore.

Johnson’s premiership was badly wounded before the Pincher affair, buffeted by high inflation and a severe cost-of-living crisis that predated the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the wounds were self-inflicted, as when Johnson was hit with a fine and severely chastised by another high-ranking official who investigated staff parties thrown at No. 10 Downing Street at the height of pandemic-induced lockdowns.

That triggered a no-confidence vote last month by the parliamentary Conservative Party, which Johnson survived — though 41% of his MPs voted against him in a sign of his weakened position.

Party rules dictated that Johnson was safe from an internal challenge for 12 months following the vote, though moves were afoot by Johnson opponents to change the rules before he stepped down.

Whoever succeeds Johnson will face an uphill climb to keep the Conservatives in power, as polls indicate British voters are increasingly willing to hand the reins over to the left-wing Labour Party after more than a decade in opposition.

Last month, Conservatives lost two special elections to the House of Commons that had been triggered by the resignation of a pair of Tory MPs — one of whom was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008, while the other had resigned after admitting to watching porn in the Commons chamber.

With Post wires