Boris Johnson's brother quits parliament, torn between family loyalty and national interest

By William James

 

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Department and Education Department Jo Johnson is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, September 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s younger brother, Jo, has resigned as a junior minister and said he would also step down as a lawmaker, citing a conflict between family loyalty and the national interest.

 

His surprise resignation comes days after the prime minister expelled 21 Conservative lawmakers from the party for failing to back his Brexit strategy, including Winston Churchill’s grandson and a former finance minister.

 

Since taking office in July, Boris Johnson has tried to corral the Conservative Party, which is deeply divided over Brexit, behind his strategy of leaving the European Union on Oct. 31, with or without a deal.

 

That approach has shattered traditional party loyalties and caused him to lose both his parliamentary majority and control of the Brexit process, pushing Britain deeper into a national crisis ahead of the exit deadline and intensifying uncertainty over what path the country will take.

 

Jo Johnson, 47, who voted ‘remain’ in 2016, has previously expressed backing for a second referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU.

 

He nevertheless accepted a job as a junior minister in the business and education departments when his brother became prime minister, but quit that post on Thursday with what was seen as a parting shot at his brother.

 

“It’s been an honour to represent Orpington for 9 years & to serve as a minister under three PMs (Prime Ministers),” Jo Johnson said on Twitter.

 

“In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP (Member of Parliament) & Minister,” he said.

 

The prime minister’s spokesman issued a statement thanking Jo Johnson for his service and adding: “The PM, as both a politician and brother, understands this will not have been an easy matter for Jo.”

 

He had been an MP for the Orpington constituency in Kent, south east England, since 2010, serving in several ministerial roles.

 

Boris Johnson’s “do or die” Brexit strategy, and his hardline approach to enforcing it, is causing a realignment in the ruling party, with several senior, more pro-European members announcing they will not seek re-election.

 

The Johnson family itself is notoriously split over Brexit with his sister Rachel having represented different parties opposed to Brexit, and his father Stanley being a committed europhile and former European Commission official.

 

The opposition Labour Party seized on the resignation, saying it underlined a lack of trust in the prime minister.

 

“Boris Johnson poses such a threat that even his own brother doesn’t trust him,” said Labour education spokeswoman Angela Rayner.

 

It is not the first time Jo Johnson, a former Financial Times journalist and a much less flamboyant character than his brother, has caught the government by surprise with a resignation notice.

 

Last year, he quit then-prime minister Theresa May’s government, calling in a withering critique for another referendum to avoid her Brexit plans unleashing Britain’s greatest crisis since World War Two.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-05

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Diametrically opposed to his brother, so nowhere to go other than out. Expect to see him on the next series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

Another sad example of what happens when the losers of a democratic vote refuse to accept the result.

 

Many years of disruption ahead until Remainers accept they lost.

11 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

He nevertheless accepted a job as a junior minister in the business and education departments when his brother became prime minister,

Who said that nepotism was only alive in Thailand?

6 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Many years of disruption ahead until Remainers accept they lost.

I thought the exit was only 56 day ahead?

5 minutes ago, ThePioneer said:

I thought the exit was only 56 day ahead?

seems some people voted exit because they find chaos entertaining

We’d be out now If Boris and his chums  had not betrayed the Prime Minister

Now the whole thing is going to become a family drama.

It seems that the entire UK leadership has lost the relationship to realism.

 

Everyone knows that negotiations on international trade contracts take 7-10 years. Nobody understands why none of the UK politicians pour in pure wine here.

 

A reasonable Brexit needs appropriate time. Somehow, all of them are rushed to promise the impossible in an unrealisic time frame.

 

What is certain to date is that an orderly exit from the EU with follow-up regulation can not be achieved within two years. The EU states should think again about a revision of the exit clause 50.

32 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The Johnson family itself is notoriously split over Brexit with his sister Rachel having represented different parties opposed to Brexit, and his father Stanley being a committed europhile and former European Commission official.

So not so much as the family is split, but boris is the oddity in the family.

 

Quelle surprise...

Boris is the right man for brexit.

12 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

We’d be out now If Boris and his chums  had not betrayed the Prime Minister

Funny how our resident brexiteers weren't yelling Traitor at them for their disloyalty and calling for their heads...

4 minutes ago, baboon said:

Funny how our resident brexiteers weren't yelling Traitor at them for their disloyalty and calling for their heads...

cue gammon-red LEAVE MEANS LEAVE.

2 minutes ago, baboon said:

Funny how our resident brexiteers weren't yelling Traitor at them for their disloyalty and calling for their heads...

They had a chance and they ballsed it up; maybe it’s ascribing too much common sense to them to say maybe they bottled it. 

We had Brexit, and the hard right sank it. The EU agreed a deal with the British government, whom Boris stabbed in the back when he couldn’t kick their legs out from under them.  How long before Brexit is finally put out of its misery?

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

Another sad example of what happens when the losers of a democratic vote refuse to accept the result.

Looking at how Brexit is going I’m wondering who “the losers” are ???? Keep celebrating your great victory of having won a non-binding referendum.

 

2 minutes ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

Looking at how Brexit is going I’m wondering who “the losers” are ???? Keep celebrating your great victory of having won a non-binding referendum.

 

Jo:  Listen, Boris, I think your Mrs May might actually take us out of Europe; I can’t stop her

Boris: I’ll take one for the team to kill Brexit dead; but you owe me, right? You resign, but I want a juicy directorate somewhere in the future

Jo: You can harp back to that joke you made at school about wanting to be Prime Minister

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

Another sad example of what happens when the losers of a democratic vote refuse to accept the result.

 

 

Was it really a democratic vote ?  

 

I have my doubts. One of the conditions of a democratic vote is honest and objective information about what is being voted on. While I can only remember lies and populist talk from Johnson. I don't think many people would have voted for Brexit if they had really been aware of the consequences and the chaos.

 

What do you think the outcome would be of a new vote?

 

 

1 hour ago, dimitriv said:

 

Was it really a democratic vote ?  

 

I have my doubts. One of the conditions of a democratic vote is honest and objective information about what is being voted on. While I can only remember lies and populist talk from Johnson. I don't think many people would have voted for Brexit if they had really been aware of the consequences and the chaos.

 

What do you think the outcome would be of a new vote?

 

 

The time for democracy is passed.  We need to move forward.  Brexit means Brexit.  No return, no surrender.

 

When do you think England will join the EU? Five years? Ten years?  Do you think they will retain any of the UK opt-outs?

 

Do you think Scotland will retain any of the UK opt-outs when they re-join?  Maybe Scotland will achieve independence before Brexit, and will never leave.  The EU has definetley said that Clydesdale pound notes would be a casualty.  Taking one for the country, I guess.

7 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

The time for democracy is passed.  We need to move forward.  Brexit means Brexit.  No return, no surrender.

 

When do you think England will join the EU? Five years? Ten years?  Do you think they will retain any of the UK opt-outs?

 

Do you think Scotland will retain any of the UK opt-outs when they re-join?  Maybe Scotland will achieve independence before Brexit, and will never leave.  The EU has definetley said that Clydesdale pound notes would be a casualty.  Taking one for the country, I guess.

If ye shall no surrender than we shall put ye to the sword. 

 

1 minute ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

If ye shall no surrender than we shall put ye to the sword. 

 

Sorry, I got distracted by "... to quench their thirst by flagons of ale", and had to go to the refrigerator.

Just now, StreetCowboy said:

Sorry, I got distracted by "... to quench their thirst by flagons of ale", and had to go to the refrigerator.

In laughed out loud at that one -also time for a beer !

Just now, beautifulthailand99 said:

In laughed out loud at that one -also time for a beer !

If I thought that I could drink my way out of Brexit I would be proud of my efforts

Just to check- the meaning of this headline is that Jo can be loyal to his family (brother), or act in the national interest of his country.  What does that make Bojo, Wormtongue, Slimy Nige and other associated hangers-on?

 

3 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

If I thought that I could drink my way out of Brexit I would be proud of my efforts

I'm willing to share the load with you SC.  Queen and country and all that.

Just now, Slip said:

 

I'm willing to share the load with you SC.  Queen and country and all that.

I'm drinking to that as well. 

 

Here's a mad-un Jesus would be a Brexiteer apparently...

 

It is righteousness before God which alone can exalt a nation. Our country must leave the EU in clean-break fashion precisely in order to uphold the God-ordained institutions of nationhood and controlled borders. And if anyone doubts that they are God-ordained, please read Deuteronomy 19:14, Deuteronomy 32:8, Psalm 33:12, Proverbs 14:34 and Acts 17:26.

 

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-christian-case-for-brexit/

5 minutes ago, Slip said:

 

I'm willing to share the load with you SC.  Queen and country and all that.

Desperate times, desperate measures.   

 

I was particularly concerned, in years gone by, that the final steps of metrification would see the completely inadequate 20 or 25 ml "sixth of a gill" English sniffing measures imposed in Scotland.  I think we have compromised on 30 or 35 ml generally, though as I do not believe in spirits, it is of little concern to me.

 

I am deeply sceptical that the parliament in Westminster will be any more accomodating to the thirsts of Celtic Nations than the Commission in Brussels.

 

To be honest, despite being a naturally conservative voter, the imposition of the Poll Tax in Scotland prematurely against our clear and explicit mandate put me entirely off the Conservative and Unionist party, and they have continued, in matters of nationalism, to encourage me (and presumably others) towards independence - in the hope of securing an eternal right wing majority within whatever rump of the UK is left after we can stand it no more. 

 

Anyway, time is short, shorts are in short supply, but while I can, Tigers also can.

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

I'm drinking to that as well. 

 

Here's a mad-un Jesus would be a Brexiteer apparently...

 

It is righteousness before God which alone can exalt a nation. Our country must leave the EU in clean-break fashion precisely in order to uphold the God-ordained institutions of nationhood and controlled borders. And if anyone doubts that they are God-ordained, please read Deuteronomy 19:14, Deuteronomy 32:8, Psalm 33:12, Proverbs 14:34 and Acts 17:26.

 

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-christian-case-for-brexit/

Why would anyone read selected texts from the Holy Bible? As a doctrine for political reform, surely the whole Book should be memorised?

 

Let's face it, 2,000 years ago Jesus had Brexit sorted, so why is Boris making such a meal of it?

He apparently begged his brother to stay. Good now to make him crawl on his knees across a sea of glass shards to sign an extension to A50 - or resign. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7430867/Boris-Johnsons-brother-Jo-says-QUIT.html

Farage pouring scorn on the bumbling Johnson on his LBC radio show right now. Almost incoherent bumbling nonsense he says. The wheels are starting to come off big time. He is Britain's Fake Trump. 

Edited September 5, 20196 yr by beautifulthailand99

1 minute ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Farage pouring scorn on the bumbling Johnson on his LBC radio show right now. 

It's not about friends, when times get hard.  Maybe he needs to keep his seat in Europe.