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Former London mayor Boris Johnson, runaway bookmakers'
favourite to become Britain's prime minister, abruptly pulled out of the race
on Thursday in a shock announcement less than a week after leading the campaign
to pull the country out of the EU.
Johnson's announcement, to audible gasps from a roomful of
journalists and supporters, was the biggest political surprise since Prime
Minister David Cameron quit on Friday, the morning after losing the referendum
on British membership in the bloc.
Johnson's withdrawal makes Theresa May, the interior
minister who backed remaining in the EU, the new favourite to succeed Cameron.
She announced her own candidacy earlier on Thursday,
promising to deliver the EU withdrawal voters had demanded, despite having
campaigned for the other side.
"Brexit means Brexit," she told a news conference.
"The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout
was high and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain
inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second
referendum."
Johnson, whose support of the Leave cause was widely seen as
delivering its victory, saw his bid suddenly crumble after his Brexit campaign
ally, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, withdrew his backing and announced his
own leadership bid.
"I must tell you, my friends, you who have waited
faithfully for the punchline of this speech, that having consulted colleagues
and in view of the circumstances in parliament, I have concluded that person
cannot be me," Johnson said at the news conference in a London luxury
hotel.
Supporters in parliament, who had gathered expecting to hear
him formally announce his candidacy, were left stunned.
Gove, a close friend of Cameron's despite differences with
the prime minister over Europe, had previously said he would back Johnson. But
in an article in the Spectator magazine on Thursday, Gove wrote that he had
come "reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the
leadership or build the team for the task ahead".
Conservative lawmakers said Johnson may have been undone by
supporters of Cameron exacting revenge for his decision to defy the prime
minister and back the Leave campaign.
"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword,"
said one lawmaker, describing internal party conflict on condition of
anonymity. The lawmaker told Reuters that Johnson had realised his bid would
fail after lawmakers defected from his campaign overnight.
Johnson became the latest political casualty of a civil war
in the ruling party unleashed by Cameron's decision to hold the referendum on
membership in the EU, an issue that divided the Conservatives for decades and
now divides the country.
JOKEY MANNER
Johnson, known for a jokey public persona and a mop of
unkempt blonde hair, became a popular national figure during eight years as
London mayor, and used his charm to aid the Leave cause after deciding only
late in the day to push for Brexit.
Several leading Conservatives questioned whether Johnson had
the gravitas to run tough talks to mend the broken relationship with the EU and
drive the country's future on the global stage.
In an article in the Times newspaper, May took aim at
Johnson's persona by saying government was not "a game".
She also appealed to the working classes, many of whom voted
to leave the EU in protest at an elite who, they say, failed to cushion their
lives from increasing competition.
One senior Conservative lawmaker, Crispin Blunt, said Gove
had probably withdrawn his support because Johnson refused to promise him a
job.
Britain's new prime minister faces a huge task to unite the
party and country, and persuade the EU to offer some kind of deal -- balancing
the desire expressed by voters to reduce immigration with London's hope to
maintain access to EU markets.
In the week since the referendum, Johnson had published a
newspaper column promising curbs on immigration and continued access to the
European common market, a position European officials say is untenable.
Conservative Party lawmakers will narrow a field of five
leadership candidates down to two, and party members will then vote on which of
them will become party leader and presumptive prime minister.
In addition to May and Gove, the candidates are Stephen
Crabb, the cabinet minister responsible for pensions, Liam Fox, a right-wing
former defence secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, a minister in the energy
department.
Aware of the uncertainty in Britain, the party has said it
is moving as quickly as it can to replace its leader and would do so by Sept.
9.
The main opposition Labour Party also faces a potential
leadership battle, with lawmakers having voted no confidence in left-wing party
leader Jeremy Corbyn, who refuses to step down.
The vacuum at the top of both major political parties has
added to the political uncertainty at a time when Britain faces its biggest
constitutional change since the dissolution of its empire in the decades after
World War Two.
-Reuters-
