International

Five reasons why Boris Johnson resigned as UK Prime Minister

Published

2 years ago

July 7, 2022

Boris Johnson

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned his office on Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed Britain’s government.

Johnson made the official announcement at Downing Street on Thursday. He said he will continue to serve until a new leader emerges.

The former PM has faced a barrage of criticism from all sides over his conduct and that of some members of his government.

The climax of his crisis included illegal, Covid-19 lockdown-breaking parties thrown in his Downing Street offices for which he and others were fined.

Numerous other scandals include accusations of using donor money inappropriately to pay for a refurbishment of his Downing Street home and ordering MPs to vote in such a way that would protect a colleague who had breached lobbying rules.

However, there are reasons that accumulated the downfall of the former PM failed in his leadership style.

The Chris Pincher affair

On Wednesday 29 June, a Member of Parliament, Chris Pincher, who was at that time the Conservative deputy chief whip, went to a private members’ club in London. In his words, he “drank far too much” and “embarrassed himself”.

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Downing Street disclosed that Johnson did not pay attention to “specific allegations” about Pincher before appointing him as deputy chief whip in February.

On 4 July, the BBC reported Johnson had been aware of a formal complaint. The next day, a former civil servant – Lord McDonald – said the prime minister had been told of the complaint in person.

Johnson then admitted he had been told in 2019, and apologised for appointing Pincher as deputy chief whip.

Partygate

In April 2022, the former prime minister was fined for breaking lockdown rules, after attending a gathering on his birthday in June 2020.

He also apologised for going to a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown.

More widely, the Metropolitan Police issued 126 fines to 83 people for breaking lockdown rules in Downing Street and Whitehall.

And a report by, a senior civil servant, Sue Gray described a series of social events by political staff that broke lockdown rules.

“The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture,” she wrote.

Last December, Johnson told the Commons that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10”. Then, he is currently being probed by a Commons committee over whether he intentionally misled Parliament.

The cost of living crisis – and a tax rise

Inflation has risen sharply in 2022, to the current rate of 9.1%.

Many of the inflation’s reasons are were not directly under Johnson’s control. A good example is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has led to rises in oil prices and the cost of food.

And, while the government has taken some steps – for example, by cutting fuel duty by 5p per litre – it also went ahead with a tax rise in April. National Insurance went up by 1.25 pence in the pound.

The government said the tax increase would pay for health and social care, and changes that kicked in this week moderated the burden – but anyone earning more than £34,000 a year will still pay more.

“In the middle of the worst cost of living crisis for decades,” said Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in April, “the government chooses to increase taxes on working people”.

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Owen Paterson vs Boris Johnson

In October 2021, a House of Commons committee recommended a 30-day suspension for then-Conservative MP Owen Paterson.

The committee said he broke lobbying rules, to try to benefit companies who paid him.

But the Conservatives – led by the prime minister – voted to pause his suspension, and set up a new committee to look at how investigations were carried out.

After an uproar, Paterson ended up resigning. Johnson later admitted he had “crashed the car” in his handling of the case.

Unclear visions and ideas

Boris Johnson won his thumping majority on the back of a clear, easy-to-follow policy – Get Brexit Done.

But since then, his critics said, there was a lack of focus and ideas in Downing Street.

His ex-adviser turned chief critic, Dominic Cummings, repeatedly accused him of being an out-of-control shopping trolley, veering from position to position.

Others questioned the prime minister’s philosophy – or, indeed, if he had one. In June, Conservative MP and former minister Jeremy Hunt accused Johnson of lacking “integrity, competence, and vision”.

Hunt was speaking before a confidence vote, which ex-PM won – but the complaints were getting louder.

The by-election defeats kept coming. After the latest, Johnson said he would not undergo a “psychological transformation”.

But that, now, is not the concern of Conservative MPs. They have spoken, and the prime minister is gone.

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International

UK University offers £37k scholarships, flight allowances to Nigerians, others

Published

51 mins ago

April 25, 2024

Trends Admin

UK University offers £37k scholarships, flight allowances to Nigerians, others

The University of East Anglia, located in Norwich, UK, has announced scholarships worth £33,150 (N44.3 million) and transportation cost of £4000 (N5.3 million) to Nigerians seeking masters programmes.

According to the information on the school website, the funding opportunity is the David Sainsbury Scholarships in Global Plant Health, which is fully funded for students planning to travel to the UK for study.

The offer by the University of East Anglia is hugely available for Nigerians and other foreign students willing to do their masters programmes under scholarships, covering travel expenses.

The applications from its David Sainsbury Scholarships in Global Plant Health is for candidates wishing to undertake an MSc in Plant Health at the University of East Anglia in the 2024/2025 academic year.

Among other benefits catered for in the scholarship at the University of East Anglia are tuition fee, living stipends and transportation allowance.

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The scholarship offers funding to the tune of £33,150 (N44.3 million) and transportation costs of £4000 (N5.3 million).

Interested candidates must first apply and be accepted into the University of East Anglia beforebeing considered for the scholarships, the school website said.

The information on UEA website reads, “Provided you meet the eligibility criteria, you will automatically be considered for the scholarship, on a competitive basis – no separate application is required.

“You will be evaluated for the scholarship based on the same criteria used to evaluate your application to enrol on the course.

“The criteria are: academic achievement and academic awards together with knowledge/experience/potential of molecular biology, genetics, molecular interactions, data science such as bioinformatics and statistics, laboratory skills, and independent study.”

Addressing interested Nigerian applicants, it says, “All self-funded Nigerian students applying to a Master’s course at UEA starting in September 2024 will automatically be awarded the UEA Nigeria Award scholarship.

“The scholarship is worth £4,000 – if you meet UEA entry requirements, £5,000 – if your final undergraduate grade is a CGPA 4.1 and above. Amounts will be deducted from your tuition fees, in line with terms and conditions.”

The applications for the scholarship are currently open and expected to close on May 31, 2024.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) was founded in 1963 and is located in Norwich, a historic city in the east of England.

International

Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests

Published

2 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Trends Admin

Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests

An Iranian court has sentenced a dissident rapper to death for supporting protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

According to the reformist Shargh newspaper the artist’s lawyer Amir Raisian on Wednesday said, “Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court… sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth.”

Iranian Government had said it had proof that the U.S. and other Western countries were behind the protests that were held across the country over the death of Amini.

Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman, was arrested in September 2022 for not wearing her hijab properly. She died three days after her arrest, sparking violent protests in the country.

Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations which erupted a month earlier, triggered by Amini’s death in custody.

Months of unrest following Amini’s death in September 2022 saw hundreds of people killed including dozens of security personnel. Thousands of people were arrested.

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The Revolutionary Court had accused Salehi of “assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the system and calling for riots,” Raisian said.

The nation’s Supreme Court had reviewed the case and issued a ruling to the lower court to “remove the flaws in the sentence,” Raisian said.

However, the court had “in an unprecedented move, emphasised its independence and did not implement the Supreme Court’s ruling,” according to Raisian.

Raisian said that he and Salehi “will certainly appeal against the sentence.”

“The fact is that the verdict of the court has clear legal conflicts,” the lawyer was quoted as saying. “The contradiction with the ruling of the Supreme Court is considered the most important and at the same time the strangest part of this ruling.”

Nine men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killing and other violence against security forces.

Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests

International

Large-scale earthquake hits Taiwan

Published

1 day ago

April 24, 2024

Trends Admin

Large-scale earthquake hits Taiwan

A cluster of earthquakes struck the island republic of Taiwan early Tuesday, the strongest having a magnitude of 6.1, U S Geological Survey reported.

There were no reports of casualties in the quakes, although there were further damages to two multi-story buildings that had been evacuated following a magnitude 7.4 quake that hit the island earlier this month, killing 13 people and injuring over 1,000. That earthquake was centred along the coast of the rural and mountainous Hualien County.

It was the strongest earthquake in the past 25 years in Taiwan and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. The quakes Tuesday’s are considered the latest of those.

According to the USGS, Tuesday’s quake of 6.1 magnitude had its epicentre 28 kilometres (17.5 miles) south of the city of Hualien, at a depth of 10.7 kilometers. The half-dozen other quakes ranged from magnitude 4.5 to magnitude 6, all near Hualien. Taiwan’s own earthquake monitoring centre put the magnitude of the initial quake at 6.3. Such small discrepancies are common between monitoring stations.

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The largest among them were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 that occurred at 2:26 a.m. and 2:32 a.m. Tuesday, respectively, according to the Taiwan center. Numerous of the scores of aftershocks could be felt on the upper floors of apartment buildings in the capital, Taipei, about 150 kilometres (93 miles) across steep mountains to the northwest.

The Full Hotel in downtown Hualien partially collapsed during the quakes and was left leaning at a severe angle. However, it had been undergoing renovations and was unoccupied at the time. The nearby Tong Shuai Building was also empty, having been marked for demolition after being heavily damaged in the April 3 quake.

Schools and offices in Hualien and the surrounding county were ordered closed on Tuesday as hundreds of aftershocks continued to strike on land and just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean, the vast majority below magnitude 3. Authorities advised anyone whose home had been damaged in the last quake to move out until the aftershocks subsided, and some decided to wait in their cars.