Boris Johnson and ‘Brexit minister’ resign

Moves leave Theresa May’s government in disarray

LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May struggled Monday to keep her government from imploding after the resignations of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a tousle-haired frontman for the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, and David Davis, her once-loyal “Brexit minister” in charge of negotiating the country’s split from the bloc.

Ever since she bungled the 2017 election, losing a majority in parliament, there has been rampant speculation over how long May would remain in the top job. That question has never been more urgent.

As May prepares to meet with President Trump in his first official visit to Britain this week, hard-line Brexiteers are openly debating a noconfidence vote that could sweep her from power.

Johnson, a flamboyant politician and former London mayor, once said, “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars .... ” He is divisive, and his stock has fallen lately. But the Whitehall mandarins and the British political class have long assumed he covets the keys to 10 Downing Street. His departure hints at a possible leadership challenge within May’s Conservative party.

In his resignation letter, Johnson wrote that the Brexit dream “is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.” He said that Britain was “headed for the status of colony - and many will struggle to see the economic or political advantage of that particular arrangement.”

“I am sorry - and a little surprised,” May wrote in reply.

Johnson’s allies say he did the honorable thing by resigning. His critics see selfish maneuvering.

May replaced Johnson on Monday with Jeremy Hunt, formerly the health secretary, who successfully secured a big bump in spending for the underfunded National Health Service. She named as Davis’s successor 44-year-old Dominic Raab, a leading pro-Brexit campaigner who served as her housing minister.

But the bombshell resignations expose May to further confrontations with restive Conservative party members.