Prime Minister's brother resigns as Minister and MP!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49594793

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Jo Johnson, the younger brother of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is resigning as an MP and minister, saying he is "torn between family loyalty and the national interest".

The business minister and Tory MP for Orpington, south-east London, cited an "unresolvable tension" in his role.

Mr Johnson voted Remain in the 2016 EU membership referendum, while his brother co-led the Leave campaign.

He resigned as a minister last year in protest at Theresa May's Brexit deal.

But he re-entered government during the summer, after Conservative Party members elected his brother as leader.

Christmas is going to be fun in that family!

Perhaps they don't carry on as the Millibands did.

Politics is a game to lots of politicians, certainly Boris has the background for that to be a likely case.

They are probably just playing, not instigating some kind of dramatic family feud.

It does all seem to be a game to Boris. His sister Rachel seems a more decent person. Looks like Jo is less of a game player than Boris too. There's another brother who isn't in politics.

From what I've seen of their father, he bears a lot of responsibility for how Boris has turned out.

I'd say Eton was fairly influential too.

Their mother seems to have been air-brushed out of existence.

Did you see this essay question, set for aspiring King's Scholars at Eton in 2011? Gobsmacking.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/05/eton-scholarship-question-how-british-elite-are-trained-think

I don't see why this is news. I disagree almost 100% of the time with anything any of my siblings say with relation to politics. We can still sit down together at Xmas.

Granted none of us are politicians, but politics isn't the be all and end all.

It’s news because the timing is caused to do maximum harm to Boris when he is already on the ropes - and the wording is a very deliberate dig. I suspect fairly unharmonious family gatherings will ensue

I don't see why this is news.
No, even the PM's own family don't trust him to do what's right for the country. Nothing to see here. Move along please. 🤣

To be fair he also resigned from Teresa mays government, as he is against no deal. Likely he should not have accepted this position, and it's rumoured he rejected a more senior position that Boris offered him.

I do think he's done it at a really bad time for Boris, but Boris will have known in advance. 🤷‍♀️

I wonder what effect it will have on Tory MPs who are calculating their own future?

There has to be a tipping point at which the ones who want to continue their careers decide they've had enough too.

I don't see why this is news.

Really? Isn't it obvious because he is saying that what his brother is doing is not in the national interest?

So Johnson has lost three big votes, 22 MPs, his brother's support, all in the course of a couple of days. What next?

• Good afternoon, Your Majesty. What an unexpected pleasure.

• You may not feel that way when you hear what I have to say, Prime Minister ...

Jo has not been on the same side as Boris about Brexit anyway, so he hasn't suddenly turned. But yes the timing is especially harsh!

Their mum is an artist and very interesting person. I've seen several articles about her so not totally removed from the public eye.

I think the Eton question is really interesting, and I'd love to read some of the answers, I bet they're fascinating. I'd love it if all children were asked such challenging questions at times. But I used to love debating at school, to me this looks like a great debate-opener.

I read a funny tweet or a meme somewhere saying that Jo is the only politician to resign in order not to spend time with family.

I don't see why this is news. I disagree almost 100% of the time with anything any of my siblings say with relation to politics. We can still sit down together at Xmas.

Because they are both members of the Conservative party and both members of the cabinet. That means Jo Johnson is expected to agree with the Conservative party line (as set by the PM and the Cabinet).

It's not about casually disagreeing over Brexit with a sibling over the turkey at Christmas and making up on Boxing Day.

Jo Johnson is impliedly saying I can't in good conscience remain a member of the Conservative party, this Cabinet or follow this line because I disagree with it. I am in a conflict situation because my own brother appointed me to the Cabinet and he is setting the line.

It would be big news if any member of the Cabinet resigned at this point but because its his own brother who is a member of the Conservative party (someone you'd expect above all others to support his brother), it is a huge deal.

It's even more huge due to the (now) 22 rebels, 21 of whom have lost the Conservative whip and been expelled from the party. This makes it a super-sensitive time when loyalty to the PMby the Cabinet is essential.

I don't see why it isn't newsworthy, although it is not really unexpected because the Johnsons as far as I can tell have been remain supporters, with the exception of Boris.

Boris is an opportunist. Nothing more. I've yet to be convinced that he really wanted Leave to win in the referendum. I think he wanted to oust Cameron on the back of a narrow remain victory so that he could be Prime Minister yet not have to follow through with the shit show that he knew Brexshit would be. Unfortunately, things haven't gone as planned.

Am I the only one who feels like the whole of government is in such a state of chaos that it's like the opening act in a disaster movie?

Who the hell knows what it going to happen? If we have an election, the vote will be probably so split that no party will have a majority and there will be only weird coalition options.

I know loyal Conservative voters who are pro-Brexit in seats where their MP is a Remainer who saying categorically they won't vote Conservative again. I know die-hard Labour party loyalists who won't vote for Labour while Corbyn is leader.

Shakespeare had it right in King Lear

Then shall the realm of Albion come to great confusion

We are right there.

Orpington is a Leave constituency. Might Jo be facing deselection? (like Philip Lee).

As for the Johnsons, they're very close, the siblings. They were brought up to be competitive and to relish debate. #Nodebate would ruin their Christmas far more than holding different political views.

As for the Johnsons, they're very close, the siblings. They were brought up to be competitive and to relish debate

From the Times diary www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-diary-tms-jo-johnsons-dig-at-big-brother-boris-v00f6qfmpsd

When Jo Johnson, the universities minister, hit out at the ease with which universities dish out top degree marks, it surely hid a dig at his big brother. Johnson said that a 2:1 was so easy to come by that students can “coast” and still get one. It wouldn’t have been music to the ears for Boris, who got a 2:1 in his Oxford classics degree and reportedly lost sleep over missing a first. Salt was poured on the wound eight years later. I hear Rachel Johnson (who herself got a 2:1 in classics at Oxford but took it with rather more grace) rang Boris when Jo graduated in 1994 to tell him, in sombre tones: “Boris, I’m dreadfully sorry. It’s bad news. Jo got a first.”

God you can just totally imagine Boris coasting at university. He's one of those people who thinks he's so mindbogglingly intelligent that that's enough. His total lack of preparedness and knowledge as PM is embarrassing.

He coasted at school. twitter.com/LettersOfNote/status/1094970662828101632?s=20

Johnson notoriously coasted as Mayor of London, but had good staff - though he still managed to cock up badly on things like the buses, the water cannon, and the idiotic bridge. One of his major problems as PM is that he chose exceptionally badly in deciding to rely on Cummings. I sometimes wonder if that wasn't a cunning plan by Gove: Gove knew exactly how unpopular Cummings made him when he was at the DfE, so strongly recommended him to Johnson.