Boris Johnson will not be the United Kingdom's next prime minister. The former mayor of London, who led the successful (if you can call it that) campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, announced on Thursday that he would not be running for the leadership of the Conservative party. Coming just days after David Cameron said he would be resigning from the prime ministership, that means the UK can neither draw on its current leader nor the man who spearheaded the Leave movement as it goes into withdrawal negotiations with the EU.
All of this presumes some British politician eventually works up the courage to actually trigger the EU withdrawal. Yes, the UK's politics have gotten to the stage where there is a chance that its politicians might find it safer to ignore the results of a nationwide referendum.
Johsnon, a flamboyant politician who spent the last few months whipping his base into a frenzy about illegal immigration and the dangers of the EU, announced on Thursday that he wouldn't run for the party leadership – effectively the prime ministership. This came as a shock because, as the person who campaigned so fervently for Brexit, he was expected to lead the UK during negotiations to see the process through.
As you might expect, this prompted a few responses on Twitter, most playing off the idea that Johnson "broke" the UK, so he should be the one who help fixes it.
If you look at it from an extremely cynical point of view – and anyone who follows British politics would do well to – Johnson's move makes sense. As a comment on the Guardian soon after the Brexit vote pointed out, there is almost no upside to taking charge of the country during European negotiations.
Whoever is prime minister will have to watch the pound plummet and the British economy careen off a cliff, while attempting to convince Europe that the UK should not be left out in the cold. And they will also have to prevent Gibraltar from being repossessed by the Spanish as well as stave off a second independence referendum in Scotland. Not exactly a walk in the park.
Johnson would have been keenly aware of this, and so decided he was not going to pick up the hot potato after all. His campaign had also been dealt a strong blow earlier in the day when his Vote Leave co-campaigner Michael Gove announced that he would be running for party leadership. Gove specifically mentioned that he did not believe Johsnon could unite the party and lead the country.
This leaves Home Secretary Theresa May as the favourite. Which is a stunning turn of events.
Nevertheless, Johnson leaving the race actually turned out to be a positive sign to the markets and many others who considered the former London mayor a loose cannon.
This also inspired some to offer up other suggestions for what might happen next.
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