Today would be a lot more positive if the decision that was taken on Thursday morning by the Prime Minister would have been followed by his departure from Downing Street. Sadly, he has claimed he will remain there until their annual conference in October when his replacement will emerge. If his failures, inadequacies and law breaking is how we got to this stage last Thursday, then enabling him to remain as our Prime Minister for nearly 3 months or a quarter of the year is deeply disturbing. Indeed, given that Parliament is due to close down on 21st July, a week on Thursday and will remain closed until Monday 5th September, that will be for 6 weeks. During that time Parliament cannot raise concerns or indeed challenge the decisions that could take place while the current Prime Minister is able to make decisions on our behalf. A few days ago, following on from the resignation of Boris Johnson, the Dean of Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing in the University of Wolverhampton stated

Let’s not be hasty: what if there was no Education Secretary? Schools, nurseries, colleges and universities could do what was best for students and their communities instead of fulfilling ideology. They could be free to do what they do best. That is worth imagining at least

Professor Damien Page made that statement on social media after Johnson had resigned and before he had replaced a significant number of Ministers that had resigned because of the Prime Ministers dishonesty and incompetence. At that point there was not a Department for Education Minister. Clearly the call from Damien Page may not have been agreed by everyone else, but if Johnson was to step down as our Prime Minister, the Conservative Party would provide a person as the temporary Prime Minister. They would then go through an arrangement to select someone as the person they would adopt as their agreed party leader. Sadly, that has not happened but it would be possible for the Conservative Party to step in a different person in No 10 Downing Street before the 21st July. A short time before Damien Page made his statement Keir Starmer sent out a call that stated

We are stuck with a government that isn’t functioning. The Prime Minister needs to go completely – not cling on for a few months. Britain needs a fresh start. If the Tory party doesn’t get rid of him, Labour will act in the national interest and bring a vote of no confidence.

It will be interesting to see if Labour can achieve that before the 21st July. The fact is that back on the 7th June, a few hours after 148 Conservative MPs voted for Johnson to be rejected, Ed Davey who is the Liberal Democrat leader set out an Early Day Motion which began with the statement “That this House has no confidence in the Prime Minister”. Rather sadly apart from one Northern Ireland MP and Caroline Lucas in Brighton, Pavilion, the only other 13 people who signed that document were all of Liberal Democrat MPs. Perhaps all of those 15 people will be willing to work with Keir Starmer to call for Johnson to be removed from Downing Street this week. Caroline recently stated “He must not be allowed to stay on for a further three months after resigning – he must leave office right now.” I am very pleased to read that from my MP. I wonder how many other Sussex MPs would agree? It was very encouraging that even though it was very late in the process, that one of our Sussex Government Ministers, Mims Davies who is the MP for Mid Sussex resigned last week. She stated “Conservatives need a fresh start and I can see no other way forward than this” It would be very interesting to find out what her call would be for a new Prime Minister and also what should happen over the next 3 months. She was the only Sussex Minister who resigned prior to Johnson but her neighbour Henry Smith in Crawley stated “for the sake of our country we now need new leadership” Three of the East Sussex MPs also called for Johnson to resign last week. Huw Merriman in Bexhill and Battle stated “I now believe the Prime Ministers position is untenable and I can no longer support his continued leadership.” Which would presumably reject the idea of him remaining as Prime Minister for another three months. The Hastings and Rye MP, Sally-Ann Hart stated “I am no longer able to support Boris Johnson as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister.” And Caroline Ansell in Eastbourne stated “The Prime Minister has lost my confidence” which appears to call for him to go now, not in three month’s time.